Zootopia: Rush - Old Version
by AgentExeider
Summary: Something new has hit the streets of Zootopia, a street drug that is become the fashion and danger to Zootopia's young population. It's up to Nick and Judy to find the source and stop the poisoning of Zootopia's soul. (Old Version)


*Author's Notes*

A number of people have messaged me wanting to read what the old versions of the fics, and even though I was in the renovation, they told me they wanted to read the old versions for comparison sake. So I've decided to reupload the old versions to FFN only for now, and they won't be delineated by chapter, so the whole thing in a single chapter filing. So here you guys go, enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 1: Another Day in "The Life"

 _Zootopia….3 Months later….Savanna Central_

The streets of Zootopia are as harsh as ever, criminals and conspiracies growing like weeds, you pull one and another rises up to take their place. It's the sad fact of how this bustling metropolis works but it's the way of the world.

To every mammal in the city there is a choice, change the world for better or for ill, but most choose to simply act in survival, wake up, go to work come home, rest and start all over again the next day. Somewhere in all of this, families are raised, generations are nurtured and life goes on. But like the passing of day into night, darkness also finds haven here, people's stupidity, ignorance and unwillingness comes face to face with the grim streets. It is what it is, a conglomeration of youth, and the feeling of invulnerability.

If nothing happens then that youth gives way to practical pragmatism and eventually wisdom, for others their lives are tragically cut short by the unfairness of life.

This morning it seems has given way to the latter instead of the former. The scene a bridge in Savannah Central, a classic keystone arch pattern that calls out of something from eras bygone, or an architect with old world passion deciding to give this particular work a cry out from the past, in either case, the bridge was like any other bridge in Zootopia, except today it was an incident. A young tiger, celebrating his 21st birthday apparently partied just a little too hard and somehow found his way to this bridge, the question here was how this young mammal found his way to the top of the bridge, and looking at the scene would tell you how he found his way to the bottom of it.

A brown and tan, beat up sedan rolls up, parking just outside the police tape and gang of uniform and plainclothes officers around the scene, asking onlookers and gathering potential witness testimony. The front door of the sedan open up and from the driver's seat pops an interesting figure, a male cougar, mid to late 40's, plain clothes, with a gruff exterior that calls out to anyone as a mammal who had seen hard time on these streets. His yellow eyes surveying the scene as he has done a thousand times before.

"Ah god, not another one." muttered the cougar as he finished stepping out of his vehicle.

"Alright, you two, this should be a good case to cut your teeth on, come on." The cougar said, addressing the passenger seat of his car.

Two figures step out of the vehicle's passenger side, a familiar duo, a Fox and Rabbit, their uniforms traded in for professional looking attire befitting their new positions but still comfortable looking enough to blend into the population.

Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, detective trainees under the tutelage and supervision of Senior Detective Casey Rollins, the three walked up to and under the police tape and onto the scene. The cougar pausing, turning slightly towards the two with an outstretched paw

"Remember, don't touch. You look and you listen, got that?" levied the cougar.

"Yes sir." Replied the two.

They continued on walking up to the corpse, numerous forensic teams were already on site collecting specimens, dusting for prints and taking of photographs, measuring, marking evidence bags , etc. The whole song and dance routine of a well-oiled and choreographed dance troupe doing their performance for the umpteenth time. The sad fact was this was routine, one could blatantly tell it was either suicide or homicide, the only question would be; what would the physical evidence show?

The cougar looked over the body, up at the top of the bridge and back down around the body.

"Suicide." The cougar muttered.

Nick and Judy looked at each other puzzled. "How can you tell" she asked?

The cougar pointed up to the bridge and back down to the body as if drawing an invisible line.

"Because, the poor bastard dropped straight down. If it was a murder, meaning pushed off, his horizontal motion would have pushed him away from the bridge as he fell, and we would of found him over there." Replied the cougar pointing a few feet away, perpendicular to the bridge.

"But no, from that angle, it means he stepped off and fell straight down. Suicide."

"Couldn't it be an accident? What if he fell?" asked Hopps.

The cougar turned casually towards Hopps.

"And pray tell what mammal in their right mind would willingly play on the edge of a bridge if not to kill themselves?"

"But it could be…." Judy tried to reply back.

The cougar waved a paw. "Listen kid, I know you're thinking you're hot stuff from the savage case and that plague case a while back, but not everything is a conspiracy, some people just do stupid things, and often times the reasons don't make sense."

"But we can't just discount that it could be something else."

The cougar nodded in seemingly agreement. And whistled to a nearby officer who was taking a statement, the officer upon hearing the whistle spun around, the cougar giving a "come here" gesture with his paw. The officer without a word approached, the cougar taking the notebook from the officer, and read it, and nodded his head sadly.

"I hate being right." He replied then jamming the notepad into Hopp's chest.

She took it and She looked at it offering Nick to read it, the testimony from the nearby business owners seem to confirm Rollin's theory, according to them the young tiger had been seen drinking to excess, was verbally and visually distraught, and the one convenience store owner whose shop lay just at the end of the bridge, stated that he saw the tiger climb up, and step off the bridge.

As Judy read it again, she covered her paw over her mouth. Rollins seeing this took a bit less of a gruff stance.

"Look, if you're going to work as a detective, you're going to have to get used to seeing this kind of stuff. That's what we do; we solve crimes after they happen. In this case, the perpetrator and victim is the same mammal, sad but true." He offered.

Nick still said nothing, his entire appraisal of the situation matched Rollins as soon as they walked up, he saw the same thing, the angle of the drop, the lack of any kind of struggle. He had seen enough stuff on the streets to know, some people get low, real low. Some decide they can't take it anymore and release themselves from this life. He offered a paw to Judy's shoulder anyway; this was the process of acceptance that sometimes their job begins when someone else ends and that you cannot save them all.

Judy composed herself and took a single deep breath; she looked up at Rollins.

"You're right, I understand, I'm sorry."

"It's ok kid, just never let people see the job get to you." Said Rollins.

Judy looked at Nick, those words seemed to echo his "Never let them see that they get to you." Nick simply looked back supportively.

"When we get back to the station, we'll check the Jam Cams, but I suspect they will confirm what we already suspect. For now, I want you two to observe the process of the crime scene."

"And Hopps, I know you were top of your class, know procedure inside and out, but that's no replacement for experience. So just watch and learn." Directed Rollins.

Judy and Nick followed Rollins around the scene, occasionally the cougar would ask a question about procedure or the why of it, some were obvious, others were esoteric a few even stumped Hopps because while not taught at the academy, they were old detective's wisdom that worked. That's what Rollins was there to do, to turn two good police officers and give them the information to turn them into great detectives, at least that is what Chief Bogo's intention was when he assigned them to the cougar.

The scene was processed in a little over an hour, the coroner came and packed up the poor tiger into a body bag, Judy felt a sense of finality as she heard the sound of the zipper closing, She glanced over at Rollins as he was discussing with two other officers, she almost wondered what they were talking about, almost, her thoughts still focused on the tiger.

She watched as the two coroners carted off the body bag on the stretcher and into their vehicle designed for such things. When this assignment started she questioned it, she knew what she was doing, yet why would she and Nick be assigned to a senior detective this way. Now she realized, it was the fact that despite all that she had seen, she still kept her emotions close to the surface. She gritted her teeth and winced, when she realized the real reason.

"Don't do this to yourself, Carrots." Said a voice.

She turned; she hadn't noticed Nick walk up, with two cups of coffee in his paws.

"Do what?" she asked, trying to keep her thoughts hidden.

"I've seen that expression before." He answered, offering her a cup.

"What expression?" she asked, taking the cup and popping open the plastic lid.

"The one that says 'This bothers me, and I shouldn't let it because I think it makes me look weak'."

Judy locked eyes with Nick, hesitating for a second, rolling the cup in her paws.

"I'm that easy to read, huh?" she asked

"Only to me." He confided.

Judy scoffed "Rollins seemed to have figured it out."

"He figures this bothers you because it's new, it's not something we're used to seeing."

"You don't seem bothered by it."

"Of course it does, but I've…..seen this kind of stuff before, and I've made a career out of hiding my true emotions. But yes, Carrots, it does bother me. A lot of things bother me."

Judy thought about that statement for a moment

"The dreams?" she inquired

"Yeah, they uh…keep me up."

"Do you want to talk..."

"It's the same thing. At least if it was something new it would be different, but it's the same thing. Over and over."

"Ya know, you could have always woken me up to talk about it."

"I didn't want to bother you; at least one of us should get a good night sleep."

"You're never a bother to me, Nick. I want you to know you can always talk to me about anything."

"Besides, if you up walking around in the middle of the night, I get cold." She smirked, joking for levity.

"Oh, so you just want your blanket back?" he countered with a smirk of his own.

"Let's just say knowing your close makes me feel better." She smiled sweetly.

* * *

Nick, Judy and Rollins, had left and made their way back to the station to check the Jam Cam feeds, it was strange to watch jam cam feeds, as they made one feel like they had travelled back in time, at least that what Judy felt as they queued up the video from the cameras, they watched the feed of the youth walking up to the bridge, and climbed up on the edge and tilted his head down, presumably looking towards the ground below the bridge, unfortunately the camera angles didn't allow to see his expressions. But Rollins just nodded waiting for the video to play out, Judy winced when she saw the youth finally step off the edge and disappear from view of the camera.

"Well, there you have it." Rollins said sadly.

Nick shook his head and heaved a sigh; Judy stared off seemingly into the distance, trying fathom why someone would just end their life like that.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" she asked

"Such as?" asked Rollins

"Like why he did it, why he decided to…End it?"

"You want the diplomatic answer or a straight answer?" asked Rollins frankly

"Straight."

"No, we don't, we're cops not grief counselors, our job is to figure out who did what, gather the proof and provide it, the proof says, this kid for whatever reason killed himself. Case Closed. Personal issues aside. "

"You got anything to say Wilde?" asked Rollins tilting his head towards the fox.

"Not really, it just sucks." Nick replied.

"Yes it does, and it's about to suck a whole lot more, at least for me." Replied Rollins

Nick and Judy looked at Rollins puzzled.

"Well I gotta go tell his folks." He said standing up and getting ready to leave.

Nick and Judy stood up to leave with Rollins when he raised his paw.

"I would prefer to do this by myself, if that's ok." He asked.

Nick and Judy nodded and stayed back.

"Do me a favor and do something else, this whole business is depressing enough as it is."

Rollins departed leaving Nick and Judy, since they were technically still patrol officers, they were to go on patrol once dismissed from Rollins charge, and that's exactly what they did. The patrol was a welcome distraction to this morning's case. Nick and Judy started the car and took up floater duties on the patrol route.

A floater would be a car not assigned to a particular route, and would be on point in case a backup call would come in, or if they happened to see something the assigned patrol didn't catch. It added a random element into the patrol routes to keep criminals from scheduling crimes around when cops were and weren't going to be in the area. But today, they were just glad to be driving around, it was work that otherwise filled their minds.

* * *

Meanwhile…..Later….

It started with a hiss, the puff of vaporized chemical hitting the lungs, the sudden burn in the chest, it travels through the blood, hitting the brain, the pulse gaining speed, the adrenaline flowing , and the colors become brighter, the sounds becoming clearer, like as if the world existed in muted tones and suddenly come into crystal clear focus. At least that is what this young cheetah thought, within moments he was running, nowhere in particular just running, climbing, jumping, moving with a smoothness and speed that harkens back to more simpler times.

It was in a nearby central city train station that his state of mind became an issue, the young cheetah had climbed atop one of the trains and was jumping nimbly from car to car, and some were moving to a stop others were not. The cheetah was enjoying himself thoroughly, he didn't at first hear the voices calling out to him till he stopped and focused on a particular voice, it was a Hippo, wearing black and white of the transit authority security.

"Hey Kid, get down from there, it's dangerous."

The cheetah simply laughed at the guard

"You sound funny, sir." Replied the cheetah and continued to run along the train cars.

The hippo spoke into his radio "Dispatch, I got a possible 10-50 maybe 10-96, Send back up. "

"10-4, Sending back up." Chirped the radio.

The hippo not being able to climb onto the trains ran down the ground between the trains trying to keep up with the feline youth.

"Come on kid, stop, it's dangerous up there, you gonna get hurt." Yelled out the hippo.

The cheetah got even bolder; he saw a train that was leaving the station, and made his way towards it, bounding off the stopped trains.

"Kid, stop!" called out the hippo.

The cheetah continued to bound, laughing oblivious to the dangers around him. Onlookers looked on at the spectacle going on in front of them, in absolute shock. The cheetah tried to jump to the moving train but was finally grabbed by the hippo who wrestled him to the ground.

"What's the matter with you kid?!" grunted the Hippo as he tackled the youth.

"No!" the cheetah whined.

"I just want to run, come on, just let me run." Pleaded the cheetah.

"No more running for you today kid." Scolded the Hippo

The cheetah managed to wriggle out of the hippo's grip, and made a break back across the station towards the front doors, the pitter patter of his footpaws clicking against the floor and the sound of his breath, panting, the pulse of his heartbeat, the happy elated expression of his face. He broke out through the doors and into the front courtyard of the station, he continued to run just as a ZPD squad car rolled up and stopped, its occupants were just about to get out of the car, when the cheetah dashed over the hood of the vehicle.

The hippo finally made it to the front and called out to the ZPD squad car, panting heavily.

"Stop…..that kid…..he's on something…." Wheezed the Hippo.

The ZPD squad car sped after the cheetah, who was now already half way down the block, siren blaring, lights on. They caught up quick to the cheetah; he had now dropped to all fours and was running even faster, the car sped up. One of the occupants of the vehicle spoke over the loudspeaker.

"Hey kid, stop, we're not going to hurt you, we just want to talk" said Nick.

The cheetah replied back with a simple laugh and a flick of his head.

"OK, well that didn't work Carrots, any suggestions?" asked Nick

"Dart him." She ordered

"At this speed you must be doing what, 50?"

"Try 70. Come on Nick, you can hit him. We got to stop him before he hurts himself." She replied.

"Alright." Nick relented.

Nick readied his ZPD dart gun with a tranq dart, and rolled down the window.

"Can you get closer?" he asked

"You got it." She replied

Judy steered as close to the sidewalk as she could without jumping the curb. Nick sat up on the window frame and carefully took aim, trying to give enough lead on the dart so as to hit the boy.

"Get right up on him!" Nick yelled.

Judy pulled up closer and Nick took the shot, he managed to hit the boy in the back, but he kept running.

"What the hell? Isn't this stuff supposed to be practically instantaneous?" he asked

"Yeah, it is." She replied

"What do I do?" he asked flabbergasted

"Try again." She answered.

"I don't want to overdose the poor kid." He replied concerned.

"Nick, we got to stop him." She explained.

Nick sighed and reloaded his dart gun again, he took aim praying that he doesn't kill the kid with an overdose, he took the shot again tagging the boy with the dart.

The boy ran a few more blocks before slowing down and eventually started to stumble, Judy pulled the car over and the duo jumped out of the car to collect the boy. Nick and Judy carefully approached him, the boy plucked the darts out of his back, and stumbled some more clearly disorientated.

"Aw come on, I just wanted to run, what's so wrong with that. I just wanted to…" said the boy as he fell over into a slump.

Judy and Nick quick ran over to check the boy's pulse, it was strong, too strong in fact, his heart was racing even though they just knocked him unconscious. They collected him and immediately decided to take him to the hospital instead of the station.

* * *

Chapter 2: It's Just A Day Job…

Zootopia General…..An hour later.

Nick and Judy brought the cheetah to the hospital, the amount of tranquilizer they had to use would have been enough to put down an elephant, their worry now was whether or not they actually overdosed the kid.

They had explained the situation to the Oryx doctor who was treating him and in turn to give them the best chance of knowing how to proceed. Even after the doctor assured her that they would more than likely to save him, she was still worried. Nick had called the station on his cell phone to let Bogo know what had transpired and to keep him apprised as the situation developed. Judy was sitting at the edge of a nearby chair in a waiting room, tapping her foot nervously against the floor. Nick happened to notice as he was finishing up the call. After he hung up he paced over to Judy and knelt down so he was at her eye level.

"Carrots, it's alright." He said trying to comfort her.

Judy turned her head to look at Nick; he was trying to present a positive expression, a slight grin and bright eyes. She knew well what he was doing, trying to cheer her up, and he was good at it. He always managed to get her to smile and relax; it's one of the things that made her love him more each day.

"I'm just worried. That kid was like a freight train, I mean I've heard of some cheetah's training to be long distance runners, but that was insane, not at that speed." She replied.

"Well I think that he may have been on something. Isn't that what we heard from that guard at the station?" Nick asked as he remembered back.

"I know, and that just makes me worried more, If he was on something, that plus the darts, plus the physical exertion, and we don't know what he was doing beforehand, where he's gone, where he was going….what…. "

Judy stopped when he felt Nick's paw on her foot, she had been tapping it frantically again, she hadn't noticed.

"Take a breath, count to ten, and relax." Nick replied as he caressed her cheek, a slight look of concern on his face.

Judy took a moment and took a deep breath, and then another and then a third, at the end of the third she let out her breath slowly. Rabbits being naturally skittish she had to learn to control that instinct, which in the modern mammal world meant that rabbits, tended to be nervous wrecks when under stress, normally though she was never one to have a problem with this, but today was different.

"Are you still bothered by this morning?" asked Nick.

"No." she said vehemently then "….well, maybe. I don't know." She responded, she clasped her paw on Nick's.

"It's alright if it does, no one expects you to be made of stone." He comforted

"I know, but I'm expected to maintain a professional detachment." She explained.

"I understand what you mean, but I don't think anybody can truly be detached. We have to be professional, I get that. But it should never get to the point where it doesn't bother us. Whatever happens, we deal with ok?"

"I know, it's just hard when it seems like everything just keeps coming at right angles."

"I know, carrots, but like you always say 'We can do it, as long as we face it together.'"

Judy let out a nervous chuckle, and looked at her foot paws and then back at him, feeling a bit silly, she shook her head slightly as if dismissing one of any of a hundred different thoughts.

"You always know how to make me feel better." She replied

"That's what I'm here for. To take care of you." He said positively with a wink.

"You take care of me, huh?" she smiled and said playfully.

"Well someone has to, you're so worried about everyone else, you leave no room for yourself, Carrots." He replied back with his eternal smile.

"Well, I can think of a few ways you can take care of me…" she whispered with a cool smile and a wink.

Nick chuckled slightly. "Well, that too…"

Nick satisfied that Judy had finally calmed down; he got up and took the seat next to her. They continued to chat, trying to keep their spirits up. They sat in the waiting for over an hour, waiting till the Oryx doctor came back. When he finally arrived, Judy and Nick stood up and stared at him waiting for the answer to a question that wasn't voiced, but was already on the forefront of their minds, a world of possibilities shrunk down to two.

"Firstly, I want to say that you getting him here was the right thing to do, he had received an overdose of the police tranquilizer."

Judy cupped her paws over her mouth, as if waiting for bad news.

"However, we applied a reversal agent and we managed to stabilize his condition. He fine, asleep, but fine."

Judy let out a ragged sigh of relief, thankful that the boy had lived. It was hard enough dealing with this morning's case without wanting another one on her conscience. The doctor pulled a manila folder that he had pinched between his arm and chest and offered it to the officers.

"I'm assuming you be wanting this?" offered the doctor

Judy took the folder and looked back at the doctor, waiting for an explanation.

"The boy's ER report, has injury screen and tox panel, the toxin we found in his system types as both a stimulant and possible hallucinogenic. However without further details on the original chemical formation, I can only speculate as to its origin." He explained

"What about its effects?"

"From what symptoms we've seen, we think it has an effect on Dopamine receptor, Norepinephrine. Which I'm not sure if you know but Dopamine is the chemical responsible for the pleasure center of the brain and controls the reward system of behavior."

"Meaning?" inquired Judy.

"Well I'm sure this boy, however he got it, was enjoying himself, however the effect on his cardio-vascular system was dangerous, I would surmise that extended use of this substance could damage the heart."

"Do you know when he will wake up?"

"He suffered a serious event, he is going to be out for a while, but if you want I can call you when he wakes." Explained the doctor

"Yes, please do." Judy replied

Nick had reached into one of his shirt pockets and offered the doctor a business card, with Judy's work number on it. The doctor took the card and clamped it into the clip of his chart.

"I'll be sure to leave you a message." Confirmed the doctor.

They each shook the Oryx's hoof and left the hospital.

Back in the car, Judy started it and put it in gear and got back on the road heading towards the station.

"So what now?" she said, glancing over at the fox.

"Hmm, I say we get back to the station, fill out a preliminary report, and go home. The paperwork alone will fill the rest of the day." Replied Nick checking his watch.

Judy was usually one to chide Nick's reluctance to keep going, but today, not only did she not, but she agreed with him, this day was simply a bad day and wanted to put it behind her. She remembered something Rollins had said, the first day they were assigned to him "At the end of the day, do you know what a police officer is supposed to do? Go Home, because it will be still waiting for you in the morning."

Those words echoed in her head, originally they didn't ring at all, but now rang true, all of this would still be there in the morning, so no sense in trying to figure it out today, especially since even a preliminary death report of the youth this morning wouldn't even be available for at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

At the very least she had a comforting thought of home, she would get a very much desired shower, and cuddle up to her favorite fox and spend the evening, maybe find a movie on TV or even just talk. The thought alone made her smile. But first the responsibility of bureaucracy, the paperwork, she disliked paperwork, but knowing what the reward was afterward made the pain of it more bearable.

* * *

ZPD Precinct One…Later.

As Judy and Nick were filling out their preliminary report, Rollins managed to come back from notifying the tiger's parents. He sat down, scratched his head, opening one of his side drawers and using it as a footrest.

"Well, you can consider me emotionally spent for the day" he fired off.

"How bad?" asked Nick.

"It took me twenty minutes just to convince her I had the right kid. She didn't want to believe it, of course. She said 'it wasn't like him' 'He was always a happy kitten' etc. etc. God it broke my heart to tell her."

"And the one thing I never, ever get used to, is the way mothers have that almost wailing cry. It gets me every time. God damn."

Rollins took his coffee mug and put it in front of him on his desk, took a quick glance to see if anyone was watching him, opened the other side drawer and quickly retrieved a glass bottle with a brown colored liquid inside, uncapping it and pouring some of its contents into his mug. The words "Zootopia's finest whiskey" printed on the label. Recapping it and stuffed it back in the drawer just as quickly as he retrieved it.

He swirled the contents of the mug around for good measure, and downed it, snapping his head at the hit from the burn of the alcohol.

Rollins finally took stock in his apprentices' ragged appearance and observed their glum expressions.

"Why do you two look like someone ran over your tails?" he replied, oscillating a finger back and forth between them.

"We uh, had a chase on patrol." Replied Nick

"Vehicle or Foot?"

"Eh, kind of a mix, we were in our car, the perp was on foot."

Rollins blinked in confusion at Nick "Care to explain that one?" he asked.

"It was a cheetah, couldn't be more than 16, ran over eight blocks from the train station…..at seventy miles per hour." Explained Nick.

"Holy shit." Rollins said deadpan.

"Oh that's not the worst of it. It took two, count 'em, TWO, full sized tranquilizer darts to put the kid down." Nick continued.

"Woah. So is he…"

"In the hospital….he made it, thankfully." Nick finished.

"Well, I guess we can officially mark today in the 'crap day' column….By the way, I have a name on our jumper. A kid by the name of Fredrick Monk, 21 years old as of yesterday, and I got off the phone with the ME, she will have a preliminary report tomorrow, and I mean bare bones, you know how long those things actually take."

"Yeah I remember" replied Nick

"So Hopps, you haven't said much, what's on your mind?" asked Rollins.

Judy was finishing her paperwork and stapling the last of the hard copy forms, when she turned to Rollins, an expression of both fatigue, both physical and emotional.

"Just finishing up paperwork, and getting ready to go home." She replied.

"This is exactly the type of day where you both need to remember what I told you…One day at a time, and unless it's a big case, don't take it home." advised Rollins.

"I remember." She replied.

The three sat in silence as they each finished their respective tasks, Rollins simply observed the two as he rocked slightly in his chair, occasionally jotting down on his report about the suicide, adding the mother's testimony to it, he noticed a file on their side of the desk, he leaned forward and grabbed it, opening it and taking a look at its contents..

"What's this?"

"Medical report on the cheetah." Replied Judy.

Rollins took a glance the report, going through it until he noticed something.

"Did you guys notice if this kid had an inhaler or anything?" he said still looking at the report.

Judy quirked her head to the side.

"No, we didn't find anything when we arrested him." Answered Judy

"Hmmm, check with evidence; see if the unit assigned to the station found anything."

"Like what." She asked

Rollins spun the report around and pointed to an item on the injury list 'Soft Palette, tissue breakdown'

"When the top of the mouth gets all spongy like that, it's from an inhaler, either frequent cold or chemical burns. Whatever this kid was on, he inhaled it. Only way to have something like that be portable would be an inhaler. Like a vial of Albuterol." Explained Rollins.

"Look I'm sure if anyone found anything, you'll be able to check it tomorrow." Said Rollins shaking his head annoyed.

"God damn, I wish Clawhauser was still here. I'd like to thank you for somehow getting him to leave." Rollins replied sarcastically.

Judy and Nick look at each other, each thinking of Ben.

"Which by the way, I'm still wondering how the pudgy bastard managed to get in shape so fast. It's like he's a whole new feline."

Nick simply smirked "Oh, you have no idea."

"Ya know, even though he was out of shape, the cat sure knew his way around a file system. Could organize like nobody's business…And you got him to leave. So on behalf of all the detectives, I would like to thank you." Chided Rollins.

"He said he would be back, after he took care of some personal business."

"Right." Continued Rollins sardonically.

"Well anyway, none of this isn't anything that can't wait till tomorrow, alright kids, you can go home." He concluded, closing the folder and tossing it onto Judy and Nick's side of the desk.

Rollins stood up and grabbed his things, as Judy and Nick grabbed theirs, Judy putting their paperwork in the outbox of the desk, logged out of her computer and they left.

* * *

As they left the building the evening sun was already hanging in the sky, the bright yellow giving way to a bright orange glow, the hot air now a warm breeze still a bit on the hot side, but at least not scorching. They walked to Nick's car, his cherry red convertible, and started making their way home. While they weren't going out of their way to conceal their relationship, they weren't exactly advertising either, simply taking it in stride, no one seemed to care, or at the very least not enough to voice it to Bogo, who himself figured something might be going on considering everything that happened 3 months ago, but again, it was a case of separation, as long as it didn't interfere with the work, then who was he to judge.

At least they didn't have to go through a song and dance of hiding, pretending to take separate routes, or leave a few minutes apart from each other. Judy would have none of that.

Work was done, paperwork filed, and nothing that can't wait till tomorrow, and now she got to be a normal bunny again, if only for a little while. Sometimes, like today, the badge felt heavy, her enthusiasm still very much alive, but the job definitely testing it at times. Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde, would go home to just be Nick and Judy, Judy and Nick, a rabbit and fox who cared for each other, normal people, who do normal things, like make dinner, watch tv, go on a date once or twice a week.

That sense of normalcy she started to crave for, especially after the "Plague Incident" as it had come to be known. The amazing thing was how little of the truth people actually knew, they knew "something" had happened, people got sick, Wolverine Risk Control got a tad "overzealous" with their city contract, and then a cure was found, and as quickly as the event started, it ended.

That sad fact, that the people knew nothing of how close they came to the apocalypse, of everything they knew ending, yet they knew none of what transpired, all of it happening in the shadows, where no one will ever know or see.

It was times like these that made Judy think on Kaiden and Kit, and everyone at Bureau 13. That was months ago, yet it seemed like a lifetime ago. In many ways a lot of things changed, some good, and some bad.

Judy looked over at Nick, softly smiling, his orange fur being backlit by the same colored sun rays that filtered through the hairs at the edges of his being.

'There was one good thing that came out of all of that.' she thought to herself as she looked at the fox, who must have felt the rabbit's gaze because he turned to look at her and smiled before turning his attention back to the road.

The whole world could be in a swirling storm and yet she would still feel safety and comfort in his embrace, creating a bubble of warmth circumscribed by his arms around her. Those were the moments that she found true contentment, and he was all hers, and she was his, the entire prospect was a happy one.

They had finally reached home, which was a larger 2 bedroom apartment, not that they needed a second bedroom per se, but the space was useful as a thinking space, a place to put up stick pins and pictures and evidence, or at least that's what Judy was thinking it was for. Nick on the other paw was considering it more of a storage closet, as he had put the boxes from his things that he still hadn't unpacked.

At least thankfully his landlord put his stuff in storage after he lost the apartment; Judy's landlord was gracious enough not to have actually evicted her after she disappeared, or seemingly so. Thankfully her things didn't get lost in the whole ordeal. Judy made it up to Nick by getting him a nice and comfy new couch, she had seen him eye in a catalogue after he had gone to pine over his lost couch.

They opened the door and walked in, going about their routine of keys on a couple of hooks and pocket items in a basket near the door. The stretching and popping of joints as they took off the heavier of the gear, the equipment belts and placing them on a nearby coat rack, that hadn't seen any actual coats for its namesake.

"Hey carrots, if you want, you can hit the shower first, hot water will be better." He offered.

She smiled back at him, the small favors. That's what counts "Thanks" she replied as she went to get out of her uniform.

Even though it was dirty, she still hung it up on a hanger, to await its eventual cleaning at the dry cleaners down the street.

Nick and her had done the smart thing, for the first few weeks back, each pay check they would buy a couple of extra uniform pants and shirts, to build up a supply, at least two weeks' worth. The idea, that one week's worth is with them, while the previous week's soiled were taken every Thursday, and conversely the clean ones picked up. Nick had turned her onto the idea after he had done the math and showed her how much time they would be wasting on just doing laundry, and probably still not starch them right. Sometimes his seemingly aloof ideas are surprisingly pragmatic, in any case, it was time better spent on doing other things.

Judy got the water of the shower to just where she liked it, and after fully disrobing she stepped into the shower. The hot water felt good cascading down her body, just simply the act of washing the day's filth off of her, did wonders to help put this day behind her, that and the scent of her fur wash, which originally she chose because of the fluffy feeling it left on her fur, which she knew Nick loved fluffy things, and of course she loved being touched by Nick. So it seemed the best way to ensure his constant caresses. At least that's what she told herself, but the scent was quite pleasant as well.

She heard from the next room the clattering of a pot or pan, Nick must be trying to make dinner, when they originally used to hang out at his place, and when she heard of his usual diet, she was worried the poor fox couldn't boil water. But surprisingly he was quite adept; it just was a skill he chose not to waste on himself, but would choose to show off and dote on his favorite bunny.

Judy wished that Nick wouldn't think so negatively or simple of himself, 'he of all people deserves a good life' she thought. 'I guess that's part of why we work, I encourage him to be better, and in so doing, treat himself better.' Of course it helps to have constant kisses, hugs and words of encouragement from a significant other.

Judy finished her shower, trying to save some hot water for Nick. She managed to towel off and dry her fur, still a bit damp, but dry enough to allow the rest to air dry. She opened the door and stepped out across the hall to the bedroom, only about a step or two exposed, she turned her head to see, as expected, Nick's head leaning around the corner from the cooking range with a smirk on his face, just to catch his favorite bunny naked in profile before she stepped into the bedroom to find some evening attire. She wonders if he pre-plans these things or is it just a happenstance based on the geography of the apartment, the fact that someone standing at the range is also facing towards the bathroom.

Part of her felt a blush at the fact that her form, so brought a smile to his face, another part didn't fathom what his foxy eyes saw that was so attractive. 'Maybe we both think down on ourselves' she thought. 'That's why we work, we bring each other up.'

She slipped on some underwear, some house shorts and a shirt, and went back out to the front. She felt the cool hardwood floor against her foot pads, and the slight squeak they made as she walked.

"Enjoy the view?" Judy said with a smirk.

"Mhmm, only a half moon tonight though." Nick quipped back.

She rolled her eyes and looked at the dinner in the pots that Nick was preparing.

"Mmmm, smells great." She commented

"I was going to ask, taste this?" asked Nick, as he uses the wooden mixing spoon to scoop a small sample of sauce.

Nick blew on it to cool it down and offered it to Judy, who tastes the sauce and smacks her mouth a few times, really trying to get the flavor.

"Mmmm, that's really good. What did you do different." She inquired

"I added a little bit of Dill Weed."

"It's good." She complimented.

"Plus it can go well with just vegetables for you and fish for me."

"That's really smart. You're really good at this."

"Let me guess, next you're going to say I should have been a chef?"

Judy chuckled out loud. "You're a fox of many talents."

Nick rolled his eyes playfully.

"You could always open a restaurant with Gideon Grey." She joked

"And he makes the deserts?" he replied playing along

"Yeah, Nick and Gideon's. And I'll come there every day." She continued to play

"Oh really, and I get to fill you up with all my delectables." Putting emphasis on the last word.

Nick picked up Judy and laughed with her, the laughter stopped abruptly as they shared a kiss. Afterward, Judy held her head against Nick's

"I believe you can do anything you set your mind to Nick. But for what it's worth, I'm really glad we work together." She nuzzled his cheek

"Yeah. I'm really glad too." He nuzzled back.

Judy left his embrace to set up the table, as Nick went back to minding his sauce base, and finish putting together the custom dishes for themselves.

They had dinner on the wooden table they had bought, since Judy had a desk in her old place and Nick had a coffee table, not that he could ever remember actually having coffee on that table. In either case, they needed a table they could sit and eat at. Bought from the same place as the couch, it was a beechnut colored table, square, with flaps on the side to make it round when needed. They bought the two extra chairs for the set in case they had company, a thought at the time which seemed only to benefit the salesman that convinced them, but they both figured better to have them and not need them, then need them and not have them. Or at least that's what they told themselves.

They ate dinner and had conversation, ranging from the mundane of 'how are your parents', and the ages and major milestones of her brothers and sisters to the more specific as to what plans if any for the weekend.

They were enjoying the feeling of just being Nick and Judy, nothing else existed outside these walls, the rest of Zootopia existed as a backdrop, or a skybox to add color and flavor to the world.

After dinner and the dishes were clean, Nick took his opportunity to take a shower, assuming that Judy would find something on their DVR to watch, a number of a recorded shows and movies they had picked.

Nick finished with his shower and toweled off, grabbing a change of boxers and an undershirt, He was still tussling some of the wetter parts of his fur with the towel, he didn't get the first time, he came out of the bathroom and went back to the couch,

"So did you find something to watch?" he said still using the towel on his face.

He didn't get an answer, so he pulled the towel down, and looked towards the couch; Judy had changed again, this time with a nighty and a smile as she patted the couch cushion next to her.

Nick approached and sat down on the cushion. Judy looked into Nick's eyes seductively and traced on his chest with her finger, which made him smile.

"I know it's not my birthday." He grinned.

"No." Judy replied.

"It's not your birthday either."

"Nope."

"Not that I NEED a reason carrots, but what are YOU thinking?" he asked.

"Well…." Judy started her sentence, as she straddled Nick. "I just realized that we never really had a chance on your first couch because we weren't 'together' yet. Then you lost it when we had to go fight the bad guys."

"So now we got a new couch, and I'm thinking we need to christen it." She suggested.

"Really? I had no idea you were so superstitious." He said lightheartedly.

"Not superstitious. Just something I've never done before." She admitted.

"So….is there any special…..technique?" he asked seductively

"Mmmm, I don't think so, I think you just, go with what comes…..naturally." she replied, taking his paws and putting it on her hips.

Nick felt bare fur, and noticed she had nothing on underneath the night.

"So you not wearing….."

"Mmm, mmm" she replied in the negative.

"So that heat is….."

"Mmhmm" she replied with a smile and a light kiss on his lips.

Judy slowly tilted Nick onto his back on the couch and started kissing him, and caressing him, her paws wandering…

* * *

Chapter 3: It's Just One of Those Days

Zootopia….Nick and Judy's Apartment….2 am

Nick was tossing and turning in his sleep, the occasional half formed utterance would escapes his mouth, the twitching and spasming of his limbs against some imagined assault going on in his mind's eye.

Inside his mind, Nick was running, as if being chased, the sound of screeching tires and revving engines. He ran until he found a door, running full force into it, it burst open to find himself in an idyllic field of blue flowers, the noise seemingly calm.

Nick looked around and realized that the blue flowers were that dreaded flower, his sense of relief replaced by panic, as he tried to find a way out of the field, he made it to a nearby tree, resting a paw on it's trunk. A sticky black tar seemed to stick to his paw.

He instinctively pulled away from it but it grew, reproducing and claiming more of his paw, then his arm, it started to grow into him. Nick frantically tried to pull it off, but it was growing back too fast. It enveloped him, he could feel it infiltrating every pore, infecting him, making him gag and choke. He fell into blackness.

He froze, seeing an impossible vision, of himself, Nick was gagging on the night howler serum, a vision of his memory in the history museum.

"No, Nick, don't do this, fight it." Pleaded Judy.

.

"But he can't help it, can't he? Since preds are biologically predisposed to being savages" echoed Bellwether's voice from the ether.

Nick watched as his savage self, pursuing her, he was frozen, helpless, watching, seeing and experiencing at the same time.

"Hunt her." Whispered a voice. "Hunt her. Kill Her."

His muscles were tensing, his blood felt like it was on fire, he could smell her now. Her fear, he could even hear her heartbeat, it was beating fast, and it was exciting him.

"No, stop!" Nick pleaded with his savage self.

"I know you hate yourself, and I know why." echoed Sid's voice from the dark

"It's because, we both know that on some level, on some primal level…You enjoyed it."

A column of light from above illuminated the area just as in the experiment cell, and yet the diorama also existed in this space, the circular cell and the diorama. The qualities of both places seem to intermingle in a mélange of surreal motion, as if both places existed in the same place and time.

His savage self, crept closer and closer. Teeth exposed, shiny from saliva, waiting for the moment. Judy stumbled, just as she did in the museum,

"Oh Nick, no, no." Judy pleaded.

"Stop!, STOP! Damn you!" Nick screamed at himself, trying to reach for his savage self. But his feet couldn't move like they were in cement blocks.

Nick snapped at Judy's neck, she let out her scream, the same blood curdling scream from the museum. Except this time, it was cut short by the loud snap of her neck, and the guttural growls of a mad fox tearing into rabbit flesh.

Nick collapsed to his knees and sobbed, the scene slid back into the shade of the ether, a voice from above him.

"Why did you do it Wilde?" asked a deep voice.

Nick turned up to see Chief Bogo.

"I didn't. This didn't happen." Nick replied.

"Of course it did, her blood is on your paws" replied the chief pointing.

Nick looked and saw his paws drenched in blood, Judy's blood.

"No!" Nick recoiled in horror, he turned to see others surrounding him.

"Why did you kill Judy? She was innocent, she didn't hurt anyone." Said Clawhauser.

"I can't believe you would do that, bro" Said Finnick.

"I warned her about Foxes, but she didn't listen, and now look what you've done" said Stu.

"Why did you kill my baby!?" screamed Bonnie

"I couldn't, I wouldn't, I swear I didn't…" pleaded Nick.

"She went through hell to find you Nick." said Kaiden

"She didn't deserve this." Said Kit.

Nick dropped to his knees, and covered his eyes, just wanting it to be over, he could feel the guilty gazes of all of them, hearing Sid's maniacal laugh surrounding him, as if to remind him. For a moment he thought he was still in the cell, that maybe he never left, was never rescued and everything that happened since then was simply a dream.

"You're a savage." They all said.

"A killer."

"A demon."

"A monster."

And then suddenly, everything became deathly quiet, Nick was trembling, he felt a presence and opened his eyes, to see Judy standing before him, covered in her own blood, looking at him saddened, tears welling in her eyes, her voice breaking.

"Why did you kill me Nick?"

"I thought you loved me?"

"Judy! Oh god, No, please No!" Nick broke down, tears falling from his eyes, as she faded into the blackness.

"Please come back!"

"Judy!"

"Judy!"

* * *

"JUDY!" he screamed.

Nick awoke and snapped up in bed, he was covered in cold sweat, his paw reaching out towards the dream, he was shaking, still in that area between sleep and awake, he looked right to catch sight of a pair of amethyst eyes and a concerned rabbit face looking at him, reaching for him. The form said something, it sounded muffled.

Nick instinctively pushed himself away and towards a nearby wall, retreating into himself holding his arms around his chest, reeling away.

"No, stay back, I don't want to hurt you." He said sobbing.

Judy had scrambled to her feet and dashed over to Nick.

"Nick, it's alright, shhhh." She came over and started to pet him, his fur soaked with sweat. She held him and tried to comfort him. She could feel his heart racing.

Judy had realized which dream it was this one particularly bad. As a matter of history, the dreams would range from a stir of awakening, or even tremors in his sleep. Judy would pet him in those instances to calm him down, she remembered the first time she saw it, his random tics and spasms, and the barks coming from his throat but losing all strength by the time it escaped his lips. She had never seen any canine have a nightmare before, and at first she thought it was some kind of seizure, but she read that these kinds of things happen to canine group mammals of which the fox is one. Sometimes the dreams were bad, but never this bad, not enough to cause him to retreat out of bed the way he just did.

"Nick" she addressed him, he was still reeling from her.

She reached and grabbed his head, with both paws on the side of his head and made him look at her. Nick was panting still trying to catch his breath, he was trembling, the fear still in his eyes.

"Nick, it's alright, it's over. I'm right here." She reassured him.

Judy rubbed his cheeks sweetly and hugged him, placing her head next to his. His defensive posture softened, he caught the smell of her, it calmed him, and he wrapped his arms around her. His trembling slowed and eventually stopped.

"Please Nick, say something." She pleaded

"I'm here carrots. I'm here." He finally spoke.

Judy continued to pet him.

"Nick….what happened?" she whispered.

"It was the same dream." He whispered back.

"Tell me what happened."

"It's the same thing that I told you before."

"I know, but tell me what you're thinking."

"I feel…..broken."

"Why?"

"I feel like, they scooped out what I was….and put in something else."

Jud put her forehead against his. She could see Nick against the almost pitch black of their apartment and rubbed the back of his neck ever so gently.

"You're not the only one who feels that way." She replied.

"Carrots?"

"The truth is, and I know we don't like to think about it, and I know we don't want to admit it…."

"What?"

"Sidney broke us." She admitted.

Nick sat silently, letting the concept sink in.

"I know, We don't want to admit that he succeeded, but he damaged us. He broke us."

"You still blame yourself?" Nick asked sadly.

"Yes. Yes I do. Because…I let this happen." She whispered, ashamed.

Nick and Judy sat in the quiet of their embrace for what seemed like forever. Nick took a ragged deep breath, still quite disturbed by the dream but feeling her warmth, listening to her breath, feeling the small movements she made to keep holding onto him.

"Maybe you're right, carrots, we are broken. And maybe that's ok."

"How can you say that?" she asked.

"Because we have each other…. Maybe we're supposed to take those broken pieces, of you and me, and glue them back together. Maybe where we broke, fits together, with each other." He replied

Judy looked into his eyes, she could feel Nick's gaze as he looked into her eyes lovingly.

"I love you, Nicholas Wilde."

"I love you, Judith Hopps."

The two shared a sweet and gentle kiss there in the dark, they could feel each other's breath intermingling with the colder air of the apartment, the sound of air passing their respective noses, the warmth of their embrace.

"We should…..get back to bed." He whispered, taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh.

"I know."

The Nick collected Judy and himself off the floor and got back into bed, Judy stayed close and cuddled with him, laying her head inches from his, staring into his eyes, Nick could see her features, her drowsy but concerned expression. He petted her with his paw, tracing his finger along the edges of her muzzle. The beautiful vision before him, his fears seemed to melt away by looking at her. He smiled at her, which she was able to make out in the dark and smiled back in response. They just looked at each other, Green reflecting to Purple and back again. Nick and Judy, Judy and Nick, a fox and rabbit, who loved and cared for each other more than life itself.

They both drifted off to sleep, trying to claim the remainder of the night before the morning would come and work would continue, always holding onto one another and never letting go.

* * *

The beep of the alarm, intruded into their sleep, Judy was the first to awake and hit the snooze button on the alarm. Nick had turned a moan escaping his throat, but still not awaking. Usually they would alternate who would awaken first, shower first, and start the day. She knew today was Nick's turn but in lieu of last night's disruption, she decided to give him a few more minutes of rest.

She arose, walking to the closet, pulling out a pair of uniforms, one for her and him, she added his name tag and badge to the appropriate place on his shirt, fortunately for her, her badge and name tag were on the vest and required no moving from shirt to shirt like Nick's, she lightly brushed her uniform, then Nick's, looking over at him, smiling gently, her partner, in every way there was to define that word, she was grateful for it. So many ways life could have fallen into place, and she got the better of the many possibilities. More than just chasing her dream, but better that she has someone to share it with, she mulled these thoughts, as she loaded the coffee maker with fresh grind. She knew this would waken him better than any alarm clock, Nick loved coffee, but it had to be 'good' coffee, none of that freeze dried mass produced stuff. Nick made a point to get imported coffee beans, whole beans too, to which he would grind down into fresh granules, usually the night before.

Judy set the grinds into a filter, filled the machine up with water, and set it to brew and put the decanter in its spot. A short while to brew, she would take this opportunity to shower, and let the aroma do it's work to waken her favorite fox.

As she showered, she could hear the thump of footpaws clambering on the floor. She giggled to herself, as predicted the aroma of said coffee had indeed awoken the orange fur ball. Judy finished her shower, quickly brushed her teeth, and finished the rest of her morning routine. With her towel wrapped around her, she opened the door to find Nick sipping his coffee

"Oh yeah, that's the stuff" he remarked to his coffee.

"Oh, should I be jealous?" She joked.

Nick quirked an eyebrow in response

"Well I thought I was the only thing in this apartment that 'stimulates' you?"

"Oh carrots, you know nothing gets me going like you."

Judy leaned over from the sink and kissed him on the cheek.

"Morning, sleepy head."

"About last night, or this morning….whatever…..thanks. It helps, really."

"Anytime." She smiled softly.

They stared at each other for a moment, just studying each other, and as quick as the moment happened, it ended.

"I poured you a mug." Nick said, motioning his coffee mug.

"And your uniform is ready for you….after you shower of course."

"Thanks, fluff." He replied.

Judy sidestepped passed Nick to let him into the bathroom, and to get dressed, she felt Nick brush up next to her, hearing him take a deep breath of her scent as she passed. She looked back to see him smiling back at her, his eyes bright again, looking back. No words were exchanged, just glances and smiles, he stepped into the bathroom to clean himself up for the day.

* * *

Later…

With the familiar feeling of home left behind, the uniformed pair were making their way to the station, soon it would be the start of another day, Nick and Judy would once again become Officers Wilde and Hopps, the professional and talented duo. Back to behind the badge, and the no nonsense attitude that came with it. This is why Judy and Nick enjoyed as many moments as their civilian selves as they could, for they didn't allow themselves to have those moments when they were working, concern yes, empathy yes, but the kisses and hugs and loving glances, no, they had to maintain a fair and impartial, professional tone and look, especially for them, they were the first rabbit and fox officer, and much was expected of them.

They reached the corner just before the station would come into view. Judy leaned over and gave Nick one last kiss on the cheek, like a swimmer taking a breath before diving into a pool.

"I love you, Nick." She said.

"I love you too, Carrots." He replied, as he looked over at her.

"Are you ok?" he inquired.

"I just wanted you to know. Sometimes I think, you don't know how much I do." She said, smiling at him.

"Of course I do, Carrots, of course I do." He replied petting her on the head, with a small smile on his lips.

As they parked at the station, they shifted attitudes, it was like a switch, and it was understood between them. They walked into the station and head into the bullpen, the nickname for the meeting room that patrol officers would receive their assignments. Being detective trainees, they had to wait until Bogo assigned them to Rollins and detective work, to have to split time between patrol assignments and detective work. They had to split the difference, wear the uniform to work, while keeping plain clothes in the trunk of Nick's car in case they needed to change.

This was only a temporary thing thankfully, as to when Wilde and Hopps would be released from this back and forth and become full detectives and the promotions that came with it, left to their own devices, and work the cases as they saw it, that was up to Bogo. He however did see potential in the duo and was working them through the process as best as he could.

The meeting continued in standard fashion, with assignments being given out, Bogo giving folders to each team.

"Hopps, Wilde….You with Rollins again, your case has had a development." Said Bogo.

"Alright, you each have your assignments, get to them. Dismissed!"

The mammals in the meeting stood and each filed out in single file. Hopps and Wilde, trailing in the rear, as they walked down the hall a familiar silver timber wolf rounded the corner, Gideon Frost, the former commander of Wolverine Risk Control and previously former ZPD officer, now rehired as deputy chief after the "Plague Incident", in the months since then Nick and Judy got to know Gideon as the kind hearted wolf that he always was, it was a shame that such a fine officer was pushed out, and now back in. The bombing of the ZPD earlier that year left precinct one without a lot of good cops, the deputy chief especially, to which Gideon was tapped to fill that role.

"Hey guys." Gideon said cheery to the duo.

"Hey Gideon." They both replied.

"Off to work with Rollins again today." Frost asked.

"Yeah, apparently a break in the case, we are going to check on it now." Judy replied.

"Well, good luck with that. By the way, you good sports for going back and forth like this, I know the personnel shortages are taking a toll on everybody."

"It's alright, it's the least we could do." Replied Judy

"I know, but I understand what it's like to have to put your career on hold because of 'circumstances'. So I want you to know, Bogo and I are doing our best to get you to where you want to go, as fast as we can."

"We appreciate it Frost." Replied Nick

"Anyway, stay safe out there."

"Thanks" the two replied and walked on, watching Frost take some files towards the bullpen.

Wilde and Hopps made their way to Rollins's desk, when Rollins came out of the break room, as he was speaking with an officer.

"Hey you two!" Rollins addressed.

The duo spun around.

"We got to go, like right now, down to the ME's office, don't bother changing, let's go."

The three went out to Rollins's car and climbed in, and made their way towards the Zootopia Medical Examiner's office.

"So what's the development?" asked Judy.

"Your suicide, doesn't appear to be a suicide." He replied

Judy and Nick looked at each other, almost feeling vindicated.

"Was it a homicide?" asked Judy.

"I don't know, the ME said she would explain it when we got there, but she said it definitely wasn't a suicide." The cougar replied.

* * *

Later…..Medical Examiner's Office

The ME's office was a cluster of tile, laminate and steel. Cooling units, and exam tables for conducting autopsies, thankfully they were just here for a preliminary report; The trio had walked into the office of Dr. Jenna McCafferty, one of the Medical Examiners for the city of Zootopia, she was Giraffe, tall and spindly, but delicate at her work and capable. While most just called her Doctor or McCafferty, her personal affiliation with Detective Rollins and his penchant for annoying his friends has earned her a nickname from the old cougar.

"Stilts! It's good to see ya." Chuckled the cougar.

"It's good to be seen, Catfish."

The two exchanged a friendly hug, and conducted themselves on either side of her desk. Wilde and Hopps sat in the large chair next to Rollins, it's size large enough to seat them both.

"So you decided to move back to the city, eh?" inquired Rollins.

"Well, you know me, can't keep away from all the excitement of double homicides and overdoses." She joked darkly.

"So who are the unis?" she motioned towards Wilde and Hopps

"Oh, them, they are in training, kind of taking them under my wing, teaching 'em the ins and outs of being a detective."

"Well, Catfish, I never thought you would ever be able to teach. Course, I know you like the sound of your own voice, so maybe it fits." She joked.

"Aw, come on Stilts, be serious."

"Oh I am, I KNOW you love the sound of your voice."

Rollins shook his head with a smirk in response.

"Oh you know you missed me, Catfish." She smirked back.

"If I say yes, can we move on." The cougar replied seriously.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're right" she replied taking the casual tone out of her voice.

"So what do you have for us?" Rollins said.

"Firstly, did you bring that file we talked about?"

"Yes, I did."

Rollins took a file out of his coat, it was the toxicology report on the cougar that was at Zootopia General and handed it to the Giraffe. She opened a file she had on her desk, and the cheetah's file and looked back and forth between the two files.

She muttered to herself, as she used a highlighter on both files. Judy had a foreboding feeling, as the Giraffe was marking between the two files, each stroke sounding the same in pairs.

"Yup, it looks like my suspicions were right." Dr. McCafferty said.

"Let me guess, this is the part you tell me the pavement didn't do it." Stated Rollins.

The giraffe looked up from the paper work, putting a cap on her highlighter, and closed both files handing them to Rollins, who in turn handed them to Judy.

"Nope, heart attack." She said matter of factly.

"Heart attack?"

"Mmhmmm."

"What would cause that?"

"Massive cardio vascular stress caused by…a as of yet identified substance. Poor kid would have been dead walking down the street. But what the hell was he doing on a bridge?"

Rollins shrugged and turned to Wilde and Hopps

"Hey that cheetah kid, what was he like when you picked him up?"

"He was acting like it was a game, he kept saying he wanted to run, just keep running." Said Judy

"He wanted to run? What the hell?"

Rollins and McCafferty bantered questions back and forth, Judy let their voices just fall into the back ground, she opened and looked at the files, and read the highlighted parts, she tried to think on what the cheetah was saying, trying to think of what the tiger could have been doing.

"What are you thinking, carrots" asked Nick as he noticed Judy deep in thought.

"From what symptoms we've seen, we think it has an effect on Dopamine reception, Norepinephrine." Echoed the Oryx doctor's words

The word "Norepinephrine" stuck in her mind, she had heard it somewhere before, something she read but couldn't place it, had something to do with excitement.

Her eyes went wide as if the connection suddenly became clear.

"Adrenaline Rush." She spoke out loud

Rollins and McCafferty went quiet and turned towards the rabbit.

"What did you say?" asked Rollins.

"The Oryx doctor at Zootopia General, told us that the drug affects the Dopamine and Norepinephrine chemicals in the brain." Explained Judy her eyes still wide, as if still fully engaged in her realization.

"Yes, Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter in the fight or flight response, triggered by adrenaline from the adrenal glands." Explained Dr McCafferty.

"This chemical, whatever it is, must make you feel good from doing things that get your adrenaline going." Concluded Judy.

"That's why the tiger was at the top of the bridge, he was trying to scare himself, get his heart pumping. The same with the cheetah, he was running to get his adrenaline going."

"That makes sense, anything that would be dangerous or risky, something that would scare you or excite you would do it." Suggested Rollins.

The doctor pulled out an evidence bag that contained a single item, an inhaler, with an unmarked vial attached to it and put it on the desk.

"I found this on the tiger when they brought him in." she explained.

Rollins picked up the bag and inspected the inhaler, giving it to Judy.

"Is this what chemical came in?" asked Judy.

"Yep…It looks like you guys have a new street drug on your paws." She replied.

* * *

Chapter 4: Warthog Hustle

Zootopia, Streets….Minutes later

Rollins, Nick and Judy were quickly making their way to Zootopia General to question the cheetah from the day before, specifically where he got this drug and from whom.

Rollins was wasting no time at the wheel, careering into and out of traffic to get there as quickly as possible, the case was already 24 hours old and they had to make up for lost time.

The trio eventually made it to the hospital and asked for the Oryx doctor, who greeted them at the front desk area.

"Well good day officers, what can I help you with" the doctor asked.

"The cheetah we brought in yesterday, we need to speak with him." Asked Judy

"Alright, right this way" he replied motioning his hoof down the hallway.

The doctor led them to the patient rooms.

"I should warn you he has been in and out of consciousness, so try not to stress him too much." He advised, as he reached to open the door.

As the door swung open, the four looked in to find an empty bed.

"Oh dear." The doctor muttered.

"Where is he Doc?!" demanded Rollins.

"He should BE here." Replied the Doctor.

"Where is security, Doc?" demanded Rollins

"It's this way." He replied.

The doctor quickly led them to security, the guard there was manning a bank of several monitors and recording equipment.

"Can you cue up the footage from outside patient room A-113?" Judy asked the guard.

"Yeah, give me a second." the guard replied.

The guard dialed up one of the monitors to a camera angle just down the hall from the cheetah's room, he queued back the feed. The three watched as a warthog approached the cheetah's door, looking back to check over his shoulder, then went in, a couple of minutes or so later, the warthog plus the cheetah came out, and walked down the hallway, leaving the hospital.

"Stop, the footage right there please." Asked Rollins.

The guard stopped the footage just as the video had them pass out the front door of the hospital.

"Son of a bitch!" exclaimed Rollins.

"What is it?" asked Judy.

"Not what, who. Tyrell Wiggins, little small time dealer that I've dealt with, little bastard." Rollins exclaimed.

"Do you know where he is going?" Judy asked.

"Last I checked he was in juvie, guess he got out, must be rolling with a new crew. I know what neighborhood he lives in though."

"Can I get a copy of this footage?" Judy asked the guard.

"Yeah, I got it." Replied the guard.

The guard took a blank CD out of a stack of blanks and put it in the disc tray, pressing a couple of buttons and queuing the video, and recorded the security footage segment to the disc. After popping it out, he places it in a paper disc envelope and gives it to Judy.

"We done here?" asked Rollins.

"Yup, let's go." She replied.

The trio made their way out to Rollins car and get in. Rollins starts the car and jams it into gear, They lurch back as Rollins hits the gas with force. Neither Nick nor Judy knew where they were going, but Rollins was very much angry about the prospect.

At first Judy was a bit reluctant to open her mouth but Nick picking up on the emotion took the bolder approach.

"So….You know this this Wiggins?" Nick asked.

At first Rollins didn't answer, choosing to ignore the question. Several minutes of an uncomfortable silence later, Rollins cleared his throat.

"Yeah, I do. Let's just say, I gave the kid some breaks because I didn't want to break his mother's heart."

The drive took almost half an hour to get to Wiggin's neighborhood; they parked across the street from a basketball court. Rollins turned to the duo in the car.

"Do me a favor and stand back, I don't want to scare these people off."

The duo nodded as they got out of the car with Rollins, they went across the street, Nick and Judy hanging back while Rollins went into the court, approaching a group of youth mammals.

"Hey…..Barry, isn't it?" Rollins said to a young otter

"What'd you want copper?" he replied with disrespect.

"I want to know where Tyrell is?" Rollins asked seriously.

"I haven't seen 'em." The otter replied dismissively.

"Kid….I'm not in the mood. Tell me where he is." The cougar demanded.

"I'm tellin' you, I ain't seen him." the otter replied back defensively.

"Barry, we know that's crap and we both know it."

The group scattered, with the otter youth trying to run, but within an instant Rollins grabbed him, and slammed him into the chain link.

"Hey, this is police brutality!" screamed out the otter youth.

"Kid, this is gonna go one of two ways, easy or hard."

While holding the youth with one paw, and deploying claws from his other paw to show the otter.

"And, I don't think you want the hard way." The cougar threatened.

Nick and Judy sprang into action, they moved quickly and got onto the basketball court with Rollins.

"Rollins! What are you doing?" asked Judy worried.

"Carrots!" Nick said, holding back his partner.

Rollins ignored them and continued to scowl at the otter.

"Look, why are you protecting someone who doesn't give a crap about you. You don't need to get scratched up for him." Rollins explained.

"Scratched up?" replied the otter in fear.

"Yeah…..scratched up." The cougar replied lightly holding the exposed claws on his right paw on the teenager's face.

"Rollins, stop!" demanded Judy, jumping against Nick's paws.

Rollins ignored Judy still gauging the otter's reaction, his eyes darting back and forth between Rollins and Judy, as if waiting for her to stop him. Rollins dug the claws in slightly into the youth's cheek, which he yelled out.

"OK, OK, Stop! I'll tell you where he is! Just don't claw me."

Rollins put the kid on the ground, Judy and Nick approached alongside Rollins.

"Alright kid, spill it!" demanded the cougar.

"He's over at the alley off fifth, his usual spot he conduct his "business" from." He explained

"He better BE there. Or I'm coming back." Rollins warned

"Yeah, he's there." The otter insisted.

"Now you might want to thank the nice rabbit."

"Why?"

"Because had she not said anything you'd have some new ventilation in your head, now thank her." He demanded

"Thank you miss rabbit." The otter replied unenthusiastically

"Officer Hopps." Rollins corrected.

"Yeah, thank you ms officer Hopps." The otter replied again.

The trio turned to leave and the kid bolted as fast as he could, they continued to Rollins' car and got in.

"Fifth Avenue is right around the corner." Said Rollins

"I'm sorry, I have to say something….Was that really necessary?" asked Judy while scowling at Rollins.

"Hey, you gotta be tough on these kids." Rollins explained.

"Tough?! You were going to claw him!" She replied with incredulity.

"No I wasn't, not really. But you have to put the fear of god into them."

"Why? Because of some power trip?" she accused.

"Absolutely not!" he dismissed.

"Then why?"

"You wanna know why?"

"That's what I asked didn't I."

Rollins spun around and glared Judy right in the muzzle.

"Well let me tell you something Hopps, let me tell you BOTH something. Do you think criminals just pop out of their mothers just waiting to commit crimes?"

Judy was taken aback by the statement and didn't know how to respond. Rollins simply continued.

"No, they don't. They are young punks like Wiggins, like Barry back there, and if you want them to stay on the straight and narrow, you got to let them know that even going outside the line even once comes with harsh realities."

"I didn't do that to him to get off on it. I did it because I don't want that boy growing up to be a thug and a hood."

"You want to know WHY I'm taking this personally now? Because I'm FROM this neighborhood, yeah, this run down piece of shit place. I'm from here, and I've known hundreds of kids like Wiggins and Barry, good kids that get caught up in some bad shit. And before you know it, they turned bad, no better than the pieces of crap like Bellwether."

"And sure, it's not the paw holding, singing Kumbaya. Sometimes to keep these kids good, you got to put the fear of god into them, sure they hate you for it now, but you'll save them and they thank you for it later. Ask Wilde, I'm sure he's seen his fair share of this kind of stuff."

Judy turned to Nick, as if waiting for a reply.

"Rollins, don't put in this position." Nick replied shaking his head.

"Nick?" Judy asked.

Nick didn't want to contradict his partner but knew that Rollins brought up good points. Nick sighed heavily, feeling between a rock and a hard place.

"Look, I've seen a lot of stuff in my days, some of it _really_ messed up. I've seen a mole get knifed over twenty bucks; I've seen drug deals gone bad. I've seen a lot of animals; adults and kids alike get hurt over stupid stuff. I didn't say anything because, I was a fox, and it's none of my business. But yeah, I think like anybody, I wish I could have saved them."

"Judy, It's bad on these streets sometimes, you gotta do some stuff to survive. And it's especially hard on inner city kids." Lamented Nick, as if speaking from personal experience.

Nick simply finished by looking down as if remembering a bad memory. Judy picked up on this, she was expecting herself to be angry at being ganged up on like this, but her concern shifted to Nick, she wondered what he could be talking about, making a mental note about it for later. Judy heaved a sigh.

"Look, we can discuss the finer points of interrogation later, we have to get this Wiggins, but I still want to talk about this." Judy said.

"Duly noted, now let's go." Replied Rollins

Rollins started the car, and headed towards Fifth Avenue

* * *

Zootopia..Fifth Avenue..Minutes Later

Like a bolt out the blue, they arrived upon Wiggins' spot, Rollins stopping the car to cut off the alley. Nick and Judy were already out of the car when Wiggins' eyes went wide and he started to bolt down the alley.

"Hopps, Wilde, get him" barked Rollins.

The two ran after the warthog down the alley, Tyrell tilting the occasional trash can or box, something to slow down his pursuers. Judy would jump over the obstacle or push it out of the way, and Nick would follow her paw steps to keep right behind her.

Wiggins had made it to the other side of the alley and was about to burst onto the street when Rollins' car came into view from the left, stopping right in the warthog's path, he ran full tilt into the front quarter panel and stopped abruptly, knocking himself into a daze.

Judy and Nick picked up the warthog and dusted him off. The warthog was at first apprehensive until he caught sight of Rollins, and suddenly became intimidated.

"Oh snap." He muttered.

Rollins softly pushed him into the nearby wall, and stared at him deathly in the eyes.

"I swear to God, if you don't answer the next question with absolute truth, I'm going to kick your ass, then tell you mother, and let her tear you a new one. You'll be begging me to take you to jail."

"Look I swear, whatever it is you think I did, I didn't do it." Answered the Warthog.

"And what is it you think we want you for?" Asked Nick.

"For busting my friend out of the hospital." He offered.

"Yeah. Why?" asked Rollins.

"Look, that cheetah, he's my homie, Thomas Gerry. He got into some trouble and I came to get him."

"I told him not to get 'rushed' , I told him that stuff be messed up, but he didn't listen to me."

"Rushed?" asked Judy.

"Yeah, that stuff that's been showing up on the streets lately, little squeeze things."

"You mean the little blue inhalers." asked Nick.

"yeah, yeah, those things."

"And you expect me to think you're not dealing?" asked Rollins.

"Naw, naw, that stuff be like really messed up, I ain't fooling around with that shit. Besides man, whoever's dealing that, is like _REAL_ particular who they got dealing."

"Come on Tyrell, I've busted you for catnip, I know you like making money, you're telling me you're not trying moving up in the world."

"I swear Mr. Casey, I ain't dealing that shit. I just came to get my homie out of the hospital. I didn't want him to go to jail." Pleaded the young warthog.

Rollins looked back at Judy and Nick.

"What do you think? Is he telling the truth or is he full of shit?"

Judy walked up to the warthog and gave him a once over, he seemed genuinely scared but not of them.

"I believe you, Tyrrell. When you said 'rushed' what does that mean?"

"That's what it's called 'Rush' because that's what it gives you. A rush, makes you feel like 'awesome'."

"And you know that from personal experience?" asked Nick.

"Naw fox, I said I don't mess with it, I just see some people on the street on that shit, and that's how they look, like all intense. They be doing stupid shit when they on it too." He explained.

"Like what?" asked Nick

"Da-yum, what ain't they doing. I see em be running around, jumping , hollering, doing all sorts of crazy stuff. I even hear it makes mating like…way better." He replied putting emphasis on the end of the sentence.

Rollins chuckled "And you're telling me you've never done it?"

"Hey cat, I ain't trying to double my money if you know what I mean, I break me off some when I need it, I don't need to be doubling down. Especially if that shit lands your ass in the hospital."

"So who's dealing it?" asked Judy.

Tyrell looked around as if he was worried somebody was watching.

"I don't know man, I don't know if I should say."

"Why?" asked Judy

"I mean, I hear they go after people that try to mess with their operation."

"Tyrell?" she pushed.

"I mean, I don't want them going after my mom."

"You're kidding right?" Rollins scoffed.

"I'm serious, they do stuff like that. I mean I don't mind being low level, I git by. But these people be like, all organized and shit." Tyrell admitted.

"Look kid, you help us out, we can get these people off the street. And your life, such as it is, can go back to normal." Said Nick.

The warthog thought on it for a moment and looked at the three of them, before settling on the fox.

"Look fox, I ain't 'officially' saying anything to anybody. So while I'm not 'officially' saying anything, I'm also not 'officially' saying one of the guys involved, goes by the name 'The Metronome'." He explained.

"The Metronome?"

"Yeah, like that 'tick-tick-tick' thing I see piano players use."

"Yeah, I know what a metronome is."

"That's what people call him."

"Why?"

"Beats me." Tyrell replied with a shrug.

"But remember, I didn't say anything. And if anyone asks, I'll deny it. Because I didn't saying anything…."

"Right. 'Officially'." Nick replied back with a smile.

The trio stood back a bit to give Tyrell room to breathe, and to consider their new information.

"So, can I go now?" asked the warthog.

"Yeah kid, you can go, and keep your nose clean, or I WILL talk to you mom." Said Rollins.

The warthog youth left, the trio got back in the car. They sat for a moment to consider their current situation.

"So a dealer going by the street name 'The Metronome', dealing a new drug called 'Rush'. Anybody got any ideas where we go from here?" asked Rollins.

"I think I may be able to help out with this one." Said Nick.

"How?" Judy asked.

"Well, I still got friends who still…..operate on the other side of the law. I could check into it with them, ask around who this 'Metronome' is."

"You mean go undercover?" asked Judy.

"Kind of." Replied Nick with a bit of a reluctance in his voice.

"I tell you what, I'll drop you off at the station, I'm feeling you're going to need as small a team for this. Just keep me in the loop." Said Rollins.

Rollins had dropped them off at the station. The duo got into Nick's car and headed home. Nick had explained, he still had contacts that he could tap to see if they could put him in contact with the right people.

For Nick undercover work was no different than running a con, it's the same thing really, making someone believe you're something you're not, and getting them to do or say what you want. Nick was certain that some of his old haunts would have a recruiter or contact that could possibly lead them in the right direction.

* * *

Chapter 5: Nightwork

Zootopia..Nick and Judy's Apartment..Evening.

Nick was changing out of his uniform and changing into some of his old clothes, this particular outfit, still with the Hawaiian shirt motif but was a bit more upper scale, the material was better, higher thread count, almost like something one would wear to a nightclub, the plan was to go to a pred-only bar in a place called Happytown, ironically named it's actually a slum and attracts a more criminal element, perfect for organizing and planning all sorts of crimes. Nick had been to this area on several occasions but even to him, it seemed too dark for his tastes.

This part of town, separate establishments still existed, meaning they had predator only and prey only. Nick's destination was a place called "The Wolf's Den" it was a bar/club where predators could hang out, but had become something more in the years since it started operating, it also became one of the many spots, the criminal element could find work. It was as the name implied a pred-only establishment. Several criminal groups would have contacts here, always on the lookout for new talent, or old talent looking to expand or change pace.

"I don't understand why you have to go by yourself." Chided Judy.

"I told you, this is one of my old haunts, places I would go for jobs." Replied Nick

"So what's the problem?"

"Firstly, your face is well known, if you show up in there, they might recognize you as a cop. Two, this is a pred only kind of place, and I don't want you getting hurt." He replied concerned

"I can take care of myself Nick." She scoffed with almost a chuckle.

Nick spun around and put both paws on her shoulders

"Listen Judy, these are the kinds of preds that don't think like me, they ARE criminals, and they WILL try to hurt you. These are the kind of people who won't think twice, they don't like anyone in their business, and some of them have special hatred towards prey. So they won't hesitate to seriously hurt or kill a bunny rabbit for just being a bunny rabbit, let alone ZPD's first rabbit cop."

Judy all of a sudden took a serious look in Nick's eyes, he was concerned almost afraid for her, and he rarely called her by her name, usually using a nickname "Carrots" "Fluff" or "Whiskers"

"Listen to me, whatever you do, you need to promise me, Do NOT follow me, don't come after me." He asked her.

"You can't honestly expect me to…." She replied before being interrupted.

"Promise me!" he asked again with more force.

"No, I'm not promising that, you can't make me promise such a thing."

"Damn it Judy! Just for once, do as I ask!" he scolded

"Look, I will promise I won't go in there with you, you do 'whatever' it is you need to do, but I am coming in the car at least." She decided to compromise

"You promise to stay in the car?"

"I will promise that, I know how important is to 'keep your image'." She replied using her paws to flash quotation marks.

"This isn't about image, carrots, this is about, you not getting hurt. Please, just do as I ask." He clarified.

"Ok Nick, I will." She agreed.

Judy finished changing into her street clothes, wearing a blue plaid shirt and jeans. Nick finished getting ready. The two went in Nick's car, he had put the roof up, and rolled up the windows, in hindsight he regretted not thinking of asking Kaiden to bulletproof the windows or something. They drove towards Happytown, it was located in the slummy area between Savannah Central and the Rainforest District, just North of the docks. Happytown had a sort of industrial look, run down, rust on pipes. No self-respecting mammal would live here if they could avoid it. Happy town was littered with all sorts of riff raff. East Happytown was a place filled with bars, clubs, each with it's kind of clientele. You could find all manner of criminal element too, Drug dealers, prostitutes, muggers, thieves, hoodlums, hitmammals, whatever you could need you could find it in Happytown, information seldom came cheap, but Nick was hoping that his remaining contacts could get him the information they needed.

They ended up in West Happytown, even farther away from the flashy but seedy clubs to an even seedier part of town; it was quiet, which was even more disconcerting. They eventually pulled up to "The Wolf's Den" Nick parked a small bit away from the club. He turned off the car and took a deep breath.

"Now remember what I said, stay _IN_ the car." He reminded in a soft tone.

"OK." Judy replied frustrated.

Nick looked at her and moved his eyes up and down her form, as if to take a good look.

"Look if everything goes well, I'll be back with a name, and we will be on our way home laughing." He said for levity.

"Just be careful, Nick, ok?" Judy replied looking back at him.

"I will try." He answered.

Nick stepped out of the car, and Judy slid over to the driver's spot, if things went south, she would have to act as getaway driver. He looked back at her with a sly smile, getting into character, and turned to walk into the club.

* * *

Zootopia…"The Wolf's Den" club.

As Nick walked into the club, he heard the sound of the lounge music, the dulcet tones and upbeat tempo was hiding the intentions of its patrons. The place was filled with predators from all around Zootopia, each conducting their business or simply relaxing and having a drink. As Nick walked up and passed the bar he heard a voice call out to him

"Hey Nicky, long time no see." Said Winston Wolf, the owner and proprietor.

"Hey Mr. Wolf, how you been, sir." Nick replied respectively.

"Aw Nicky, no need to stand on formality, call me Winston, we've known each other long enough." He replied offering him a seat.

Nick takes a seat at the bar, it's dark oak surface, shiny with the gloss of the clear coat. Winston behind the bar polishing a glass.

"So what can I do ya for?" the wolf asked.

"Well Winston, I heard through the grapevine that there is some new 'opportunities' in town."

"Yeah, is that a fact, like what?"

"Well, I heard that one could make a fair profit in…..distribution." replied Nick raising his eyebrows at the end of the sentence.

"Well, that's always been true, what makes today any different."

"Well because it's something new. And from what I hear, really good."

Winston raised an eyebrow, almost wondering, if Nick knew something he didn't, which would be a rare thing indeed.

"What are you trying to get involved in Nicky?" the wolf asked.

Nick casually pulled something out of his pocket and placed it nonchalant on the bar, moving his paw away far enough to show Winston, it was a blue inhaler with a vial of Rush.

"Oh jeez, Nicky, not you too." The wolf winced at his fox friend.

"What have you heard?" asked Nick, palming the Rush inhaler back into his pocket.

"Look Nicky, please listen to me, don't get hooked on that shit….it….it won't end well."

"Winston, do I look like an addict? No. I'm looking to get into selling it, I heard it's very popular, which means lots of money."

"Not that I took you for the type Nicky, but sell catnip then. It's a heck of a lot less dangerous." The wolf said concerned

"Winston, is that concern I hear?" Nick asked plainly.

"Yeah it is. I know, I'm usually the one who's the hardass, but in this case Nicky, I'm trying to save you a lot of trouble."

"Look, I just want to talk to someone in the know, get an idea, if it's too hot, then I'll back off. I just want a chance though."

Winston, poured Nick a beer and slid it across to him, Nick took a decent gulp of it.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but over in the back, right corner, there is a bear, black bear, big twitchy mammal. Talk to him, name is Ben Thompson."

Nick turned and looked down the length of the bar, then past it to where Winston said, and there he was, a large black bear sitting there seemingly working on his phone. Nick picked up his beer and got up and headed towards the black bear, trying not to make eye contact until he got to him. He casually sat down opposite the bear.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"No, but I heard you were a bear to ask about certain opportunities." Insinuated Nick.

"I have all sorts of opportunities, you will have to be more specific." The bear replied still not looking up from his phone.

Nick took out the inhaler and placed it on the table in front of him.

"I heard about this opportunity."

The bear still on his phone glanced at the inhaler and then back at his phone and let out a scoff.

"If you're looking for a fix, I'm not the one to talk to."

Nick decided to change strategy.

"Ya know, that is the second time I've been asked that. I'm not looking for a fix, I'm looking for a business arrangement, but if you're not going to take this seriously…."

"I take everything seriously." The bear finally took his attention of his phone.

"What I don't take seriously, is some fox from off the street, coming out of the blue and bothering me."

"Well that's because you haven't heard what I have to say."

The bear crooked an eyebrow slightly curious.

"Look, my name is Nick, and if you ask anyone around here, they can tell you that one thing I KNOW how to do, is sell. That and the fact that I know pretty much everybody, You need an 'in' in Little Rodentia, I'm your fox. Sahara Square and the Mystic Oasis club, I have contacts in every district, heck even out in the burrows. So I figure if you want to expand, and do so without having to build your own network piece by piece, we could do business. Let my people handle it."

The bear thought on this for a minute.

"If you so, widespread, how come I've never heard of you?"

"Because my people and I know how to keep quiet. How to lay low and not make waves for the cops to find."

"Too quiet it seems. I've never heard of some phantom network run by a fox."

"Well you know what they say 'When you've done your job right, no one is sure you've done anything at all.' A bit frustrating sometimes, and very rewarding to those that do sign on to using me." Nick replied, blowing on his nails and lightly rubbing them on his shirt as if polishing them.

"Well, even IF, and that is a BIG IF, I'm not the one you talk to about percentages of anything."

The bear slid something across the table, a business card, it said 'Apex' on it, Sahara Square. Nick took the card and looked at it.

"Apex? As in that really rich looking club uptown?"

"The very one, when you get in, ask for 'The Metronome', and be ready to answer some hard questions. If 'The Metronome' feels that you're wasting his time, he'll 'waste' you."

"I will be careful." Replied Nick as he collected the card and the inhaler.

"Oh and don't pull the 'mysterious stranger' crap, that will just piss him off."

"Duly noted." Nick replied back.

Nick smiled as he started walking towards the door, he had gotten an 'in' with this metronome, even under the guise of someone looking for a job, and he hoped it would be enough. He was feeling confident, and happy, pulling off another con in a way. An old feeling, like a comfortable pair of shoes, Nick hadn't felt this way in a while, wondering if he still had the 'edge' as Finnick would say.

As he walked past the bar, he noticed that Winston wasn't there, he stopped and looked behind bar, thinking maybe he was kneeling down grabbing something, but no, he wasn't there at all. At first he was concerned but then dismissed it as he walked out the door.

* * *

As Nick walked out the door he heard a scuffle from a nearby alley, a couple of wolves came running out of the alley, followed by Winston, who threw what looked like a piece of brick, tagging one of them in the back, who yelped.

"Oh you better run you sons of bitches." He yelled out.

The wolf turned towards and spoke towards someone.

"What the hell are you even doing in this neighborhood, grazer?" asked Winston to the unknown person.

"What cat got your tongue? Answer me, what are you doing here?"

Nick shot a glance at the car and then back at Winston, he ran over to the alley, He saw Winston standing over a rabbit, who had looked like she got into a fight.

"So…..Winston what's going on?" Nick asked keeping his cover.

"This rabbit here is lost." The wolf answered.

"Look sir, I'm very sorry to have bothered you." Replied Judy, trying to act innocent.

"How are you even down here? This is Happytown, no grazers comes to happy town, especially at this time of night."

Winston took a moment to consider something, he looked around, noticing almost no cars on the side of the street except Nick's convertible, which he knew well, and he panned to the rabbit, then to Nick.

"Nicky? What the hell is going on here?" the wolf looked at Nick with a piercing stare.

"What do you mean?" Nick replied, acting stupid.

"First, you come back after being gone for like a year or more, you ask about getting in on a dangerous job, AND you bring a rabbit?"

"I don't know her." Nick replied.

"Really now, Hey Nick, I've got the best nose in the business remember." He said, trying to remind Nick

"Yeah."

"So the fact that I can smell you on her, you're still going to go with that lame excuse."

Nick looked as if he had been caught.

"Look, unlike my clientele, I don't care what you do and who you do it with. It isn't my business if you're into pred-prey stuff. Truth is you were always the weird one Nicky." Winston joked.

Nick smiled with a chuckle.

"But what I do mind is being used." Winston changed his demeanor to a more serious tone.

Winston in a flash grabbed Nick by the throat and pinned him against the wall. Judy rushed up to Winston, he grabbed her and pinned her against the wall next to Nick.

"Now what the hell is going on here? And you better tell me the truth or I WILL turn you both into an orange and gray grease spot." Said the wolf.

Nick opened his mouth, trying to think of some kind of plausible excuse, but Judy spoke first.

"We came here just to get some information."

"What kind of information?" asked the wolf.

"We needed to get information about a mammal named 'the metronome'." She replied

"What are you cops?" he asked with almost incredulity.

Winston looked Judy up and down and realized who she was.

"Holy crap, you're that rabbit cop." He concluded.

"So Nick, I guess you're either a cop or a snitch, and I don't know which one is worse." He said levying the statement at Nick

"Look Winston, you said it yourself, that Rush stuff is bad, we got to get it off the streets."

"Yeah, but I don't like being lied to." Winston replied giving Nick's throat a squeeze.

Nick sputtered and gasped.

"I'm sorry." He wheezed.

"What did you say?" Winston pretending not to hear.

"I said, I'm sorry!" Nick replied a little louder.

Winston let out a grunt of frustration and dropped them both.

"Ya know Nicky, I know lying comes as first nature to you, and you lie to a lot of folks, but not to your family, how many times have I bailed you out? Who took you in when you were lost on the damn streets?!"

Nick hung his head, looking down, his ears drooped.

"You should have trusted me Nicky."

The Wolf then turned his attention to the rabbit.

"So….you're the rabbit that took Nicky out of this life?"

"Yes, my name is Judy, Judy Hopps." She offered her paw.

"Winston Wolf, I solve problems, or rather, I used to solve problems." he replied shaking her paw.

"Well, I'm glad you got Nicky onto something better."

Judy smiled.

"I just didn't expect you to steal the boy's heart, but hey, happy is happy right." He concluded

Judy blushed a little bit. Winston thought for a moment seriously, and clicked his tongue a few times, as if trying to come to a decision on something.

"Look, I can't let you roll up my clientele, but I will say this, this 'Rush' stuff I keep hearing about is bad, like really bad. And I wouldn't mind if those folks went away for a while." He said to Judy.

"Nicky did you get in good with the guy?" He asked.

"Yeah. I got his card. Apex club."

"Yeah, sounds about right, alright look, from what I heard, this 'metronome' guy, has a warehouse or storage something, right next to the club, they might actually have it connected by a tunnel or something, whatever. Anyway, what I hear is that this mammal moves the stuff in and out through this place, the club is a front, something glitzy and glamorous for people to focus on while the real business goes on in the back." Explained Wolf.

"So if you want to bust these creeps, you got to get into that warehouse. And don't ask me how, what I just told you is all I heard from just listening."

"Thank you for your help." replied Judy

"Yeah, don't mention it, now get outta here."

Judy turned to Nick "Come on Nick."

"Just a second, carrots. I'll catch up." Nick replied.

Judy left the two alone and started walking back to the car.

"I'm sorry Winston." Said Nick.

"I'm disappointed Nicky. I understand you got your undercover cop thing going on, but damn, you're telling me you can't trust me?"

"I've been through some stuff this last year that really made me question my trust in a lot of people."

"You want to talk about it?"

"Yeah, I would, but not now, no time."

"So let me ask, this 'stuff' you went through, she go through it with you?"

"Yeah, we really bonded because of it."

"Well, she seems nice Nicky, so do yourself a favor, and don't screw it up."

"I'm not, in fact I got the feeling that, well, that I'll be looking into those eyes for the rest of my life." Nick replied with a pleasant smile, thinking of the prospect.

Winston laughed out loud.

"Well my Nicky, finally growing up." Winston smiled.

"Then a bit of advice, stop lying to people close to you."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that." Nick said.

"I know you Nicky, it's a self-defense thing, you lie because you don't want to face the truth sometimes, or you think it's easier just to live as the preverbal 'sly fox'."

"I'm telling you that shit is going to come home to roost one day. So why would you do it to people who care about you?" asked Winston

"I know, I was worried that if I came in all police investigator you would have thrown me out, or worse, told me to never come back." Nick admitted.

"Nicky, look, you're right, I deal with some shady ass characters, and while like I said, I can't let you destroy how I do business, I would never just throw you out of my life. I know what heartbreak you've been through, how you been hurt. I would never do that to you, no matter what your occupation is."

"Thanks Winston."

Winston gave Nick a fatherly hug, giving him a few pats on the back.

"Now, get outta here Nicky, you got things to do." The wolf said as he broke the hug.

Nick started to walk back across the street toward his car.

"And Nicky….she's cute, you got good taste young fox." The wolf said with a smile, as he went back into the bar.

* * *

Nick jumped in the car as it began to rain, the thumping of the drops, echoing inside the car like soft tapping.

"What happened out there?" Nick asked concerned.

"Look, I'm sorry ok, I didn't mean to blow your cover." Judy apologized.

"Screw my cover Judy, I don't care about that, I care about your safety more than anything. What happened?"

"I….I got jumped. Ok"

"No it's not ok, how did they even get close?"

"I….I…..I got out of the car." Judy admitted

Nick shook his head in disappointment.

"Damn it, carrots. I told you…."

"I know what you told me. Ok, I started to get worried." She interrupted Nick.

Nick sighed. "What happened?"

"I got out of the car and went over to peek in the window, I was watching you talk with the bartender, and those wolves snuck up on me."

"We got into a little scuffle, and your friend came out to see what was the matter, and he chased them off. No big deal." Judy finished.

"It's a big deal to me carrots, I know you can take care of yourself in a fight, but if something was to happen to you…"

"I know. And I appreciate the concern. But there are times when this job is going to get dangerous for the both of us, but if we are so preoccupied with what _MIGHT_ happen then we really _WILL_ get hurt."

Nick sat silently, just looking at her.

"Kind of like what I just did. I got so preoccupied with what might happen to you, I didn't pay attention to where I was, and I got jumped. So I'm guilty of it too. So don't feel bad." She admitted.

"And you're sure you ok?" still concerned.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she asked.

"Cuz when you say you got jumped, do you mean they were trying to beat you up or….were they trying to…" Nick asked reluctantly, not wanting to ask the question, the mere words acting as ash on his mouth.

Judy could sense what he was trying to ask, as he was looking down, not even able to look at her in the face to ask the question, his ears lowered, and a visibly disturbed expression on his face.

"No they weren't, they just wanted to try and rough me up. Thinking they could rough up a small bunny from out of town. I showed them though."

"Would you tell me if they were?"

"I wouldn't keep that kind of thing from you Nick."

"Ok." He answered almost silently still looking down. Still thinking of what could have happened.

"But you're right….this is a rough part of town."

Judy slid over to Nick and caressed him on the cheek.

"Hey." She said softly and sweetly. "Don't be sad."

She looked into his eyes, smiling sweetly at him, and she rubbed her nose against his trying to cheer him up.

"Hey, your bunny is trying to love on you."

Nick turned eyes to look into hers.

"Oh come on, don't be mopey." She said playfully.

"How can you be so bubbly, after what just happened?" he asked.

"Because Nick, life is just series of moments, some good, some bad, and we've seen some pretty bad ones. And they were worse than three punks in an alley, and I want my life with you to be filled with as many good moments as possible."

"Even though we could die any second."

"Especially because we could die any second. If that happens, I want my last thoughts on this earth to be of you, how you laugh, how you smile, how you love."

"Good moments?" he finished the sentiment.

"Moments, just…like….this." she replied as she sweetly kissed him on the lips, then passionately.

Nick closed his eyes and kissed her back, and just like that it seemed as if what just happened a few minutes ago just disappeared. Judy had that power over him, right as he is focusing and obsessing over the horrible outcomes of what it is they do, she swoops in and just changes it. Create a moment encapsulated and self-contained, and fill it with good feelings of love and joy. He had never met anyone who could do that, ever. It was one of the qualities she had about her, and it was because of those qualities he felt compelled to protect her, not because of bravado or machismo, not because of some assumption of inability, but because he felt her soul was of such purity such rarity, that he would do anything and everything to keep this life from soiling it, and if necessary taking the dirt and grime into his own paws if only to spare it from dirtying hers.

When she broke the kiss, all he could do was smile back at her, looking into those beautiful amethyst eyes.

"See, I got you to smile." She said triumphantly.

"That you did." He whispered.

"We should get going, we still have a bad guy to catch. And I have to change." She said giving him a peck on the nose.

"What do you mean?" asked Nick

"Oh, I'm going with you this time." She replied playfully.

* * *

Chapter 6: Apex Predator

The duo stopped off at their place to retrieve a few items, namely firearms, Judy changing into club wear, the short skirt showing off her legs. They both needed to present the idea that Nick was a 'business' man, someone who could act as a mid-level dealer for whomever "the metronome" was.

Nick has gone into the bathroom to spray on some cologne and groom his fur to be more professional looking. As he fumbled in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror, the mirror was tilted and he could Judy finishing up, she had a foot paw up on the edge of a chair finishing putting on the foot coverings, Nick happened to spy the white fur that ran along the inside of her thigh.

Judy almost feeling the gaze turned and saw Nick looking at her from the mirror.

"Don't get any ideas, Wilde." She said playfully with a smile.

Nick snapped out of his gaze and finished up.

"At least, not until we catch this guy." She finished with a giggle.

Nick laughed to himself, he knew what she meant. Judy being the effervescent rabbit she was, she loved being a cop, but he had found out a particular thing about her while living with her, and that success, accomplishment, attaining a long sought after goal, like say an arrest of a criminal, especially one they had worked hard on catching for example. She becomes very amorous, an interesting truth that he was happy to oblige.

Nick had finished, and walked over to Judy. They both took stock in how many rounds of ammunition they could afford to take. Nick had put his gun on his shoulder holster, taking two extra magazines. Judy with her revealing skirt had to use a thigh holster and a smaller more concealable weapon. Nick had the idea to put her larger gun in the clasp purse she had, and a couple of extra magazines.

The hope was none of this would be necessary, and they could chalk it up to having it and not needing it. But with their luck, better to be safe than sorry.

The pair left in Nick's convertible and made their way to the club

* * *

Zootopia…..Sahara Square…..Apex Club.

Despite as the name would suggest the club was open to all, there were many predators and prey waiting in the line to get in. The one common theme among them was they were young 20 somethings looking to have a good time.

Nick pulled into a parking space and turned off the car.

"So what's the backstory this time?" asked Judy.

"Well, I was thinking, I'll be in the distribution business, looking to move up in the world, and you're my sexy but capable assistant." He replied.

"…And that's all?" she asked.

"Well you're my assistant….but that I'm hitting 'that' up on the side." Nick replied with a sly grin.

Judy rolled her eyes "Oh, you are SUCH a romantic." She replied sarcastically.

"Seriously though, let's just be careful, act casual and just find out what we need to know." Nick replied more on point.

"I'm more worried about you; you're the one that's going to do all the talking." She said looking at him concerned.

"Hey, who's the professional con artist? I got this." He replied with a small smile.

Judy just held her concerned gaze.

"Hey, it will be ok. Just follow my lead and play along." He reassured her, kissing the tip of his finger and touching her nose.

They took a deep breath and got into character, and stepped out of the car. Nick and Judy walked to the entrance almost acting as if they owned the place, they were stopped by a polar bear bouncer.

"Eh! Back of the line like everyone else." Ordered the bouncer.

Nick presented the business card he was given to the bouncer, who looked at it.

"I was sent by Ben." Said Nick flatly almost as if he explaining himself was beneath him.

The bouncer too the card and turned it over, using a black light he revealed a logo, in seeing it he went wide eyed, quickly giving the card back.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr?"

"Wilde, Nick Wilde."

"Yeah, sorry Mr. Wilde, you can go right on in, He's over in in the private lounge." The bouncer replied back, almost scared.

Nick and Judy were ushered into the club, as they went in, the loud dance music resonated throughout the place, various patrons either on the dance floor, or drinking at the bar, or sitting at the nearby tables. They were initially worried that a predator and prey walking arm in arm would cause undue attention, but the loud music, rampant motions of people and the flow of alcohol, no one seemed to notice or care. They walked towards the private lounge, another bouncer, another flash of the card and scan by the blacklight. This time, Nick peered at the logo, it was a picture of a classic pyramidal shape with a swinging bar attached, a metronome.

"You can go in, but he'll be down in a moment." Said the bouncer.

Just as they were about to walk into quieter lounge area, the song ended and a voice rang out.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies, and gentlemen, I welcome you to another fine evening here tonight."

Nick and Judy turned to look up at the upper balcony to see a tiger, dressed very well, posh in fact, with a microphone in his paw, very energetic and enthusiastic.

"Tonight we are ALL hunters, hunting for that good time, that great time, the time that we live for, out of our humdrum lives, the time when we really feel alive!"

The Tiger hopped onto the piping of the balcony, gripping his foot paws onto the second pipe, and propping his shins against the top one.

"This time! My friends, is the best time!, The time we hunt for, we thrive for! Carpe Noctis my friends, Seize the Night!"

"Welcome my friends, welcome to the APEX CLUB!" shouted the tiger fervently into the microphone, and well timed air cannons punctuating his speech.

"Yeah, MET-TRO-NOME!" called out a random patron.

Soon the entire club patrons were chanting "Met-tro-nome" over and over, pumping their fisted paws into the air, the tiger on the balcony pumping both his arms in time with the crowd. After relishing the applause for a few moments, he looked over and pointed at the DJ.

"Goldstein!" he shouted.

The rabbit DJ looked up at him, pulling one of the headphones off his ear.

"Drop a 'phat' beat for my friends!"

The rabbit put the headphone back on, nodded a moment and then a particularly energetic base beat came on; the crowd cheered and started dancing, almost bouncing to the beat, a plethora of mammals dancing energetically.

Nick and Judy witnessed this spectacle, looking at each other and then back at the tiger, who had climbed down from the balcony and coming down from the upper floor.

The pair moved into the lounge area, just as an entourage came down the nearby stairs, and behind them came the tiger, flanked by a pair of female tigers, their dresses as glittery, flamboyant and revealing as he was, a good show piece for the tiger that wrapped his arms around them. He was about to not even come into the lounge when a bouncer whispered into his ear. He slowly tilted his head in the direction of Nick, almost locking gaze with him and then whispered something back to the bouncer.

He came walking over to the lounge, which was an octagonal recess in the floor, with plush purple cushions, a small lit floor that would slowly change color with the rest of the club, a shiny mirror and glass table in the center. The tiger and his two ladies sat on one side, while Nick and Judy sat on the other.

"So, I hear you were sent by Ben?" asked the tiger.

"Yes, I described an offer he figured you would be receptive to." Replied Nick

"Really now, and what would that be?" inquired the tiger.

Nick shot a glance to the two female tigers.

"You sure you want to talk business with them around?" he asked pointing to the tigresses

"They are fine, besides you have your rabbit." The tiger replied back.

"Ah, she assists me, an assistant of sorts." Nick explained.

The tiger gave the rabbit a brief look over and smiles slyly.

"Yes, I'm sure she does." He replied still looking at Judy.

He blinked and his gaze back on Nick.

"I've known rabbits before, used them for 'retail' and 'customer service' Tell me, is she good with customers?" He said to Nick, putting odd emphasis on certain words.

"She's not that kind of assistant." Nick replied defensively.

"Ah, a personal 'assistant' I've never been one for those. So tell me….ah, forget my manners, your name sir?"

"Wilde, Nick Wilde."

"Ah so tell me Wilde, Nick Wilde, how does having a rabbit as a personal assistant work, is she good? Filing and sorting, perhaps 'dictation'?" he asked with an odd smile.

Nick started to realize that this tiger was playing with him, and doing so by insulting Judy. He wanted to get a rise out of Nick, but he had to keep his cool. He had to play the part.

"Yes, she is, I trained her 'personally'. She knows her 'place'." Nick replied back in the same euphemistic language, thinking to himself he will apologize later.

Judy without changing her expression glanced at Nick then back at the Tiger.

"Well that's very interesting, perhaps I should consider it." Replied the Tiger.

"What do you think darlin', I just might have a position that would fit you." The tiger offered to Judy, with a cool almost sinister smile about him.

Judy's eyes instinctively went wide at first, and then she saw Nick wave a paw in front of her, he had instinctively bared his claws, his palm almost cupped protectively in the air in front of her.

"She's not for sale, and that is not the business I came to conduct." Nick redirected.

The tiger read this and smiled, choosing to end his play session and conduct business.

"Alright, then what have you come for?" he inquired.

"I came to offer you my network, to help you expand as it were, for a moderate price." Nick offered.

"And what is it that you think I need help with?" asked the tiger with a raised eyebrow.

Nick reached into his coat pocket and put a metal vial on the table, which changed the tiger's expression entirely.

"What's this?" the tiger asked in false ignorance.

"I think you know exactly what it is."

"Sorry, 'fraid not, I'm just a humble proprietor of this establishment." The tiger maintaining his façade of ignorance.

"Well, that's a shame. I was going to offer my services for a paltry sum, in exchange a well-established distribution network would be at the available to the creators of this wonderful stuff."

"Wonderful? Is that how you describe it?" the tiger asked coyly.

"Oh yes, in fact I would even say it's a great 'rush' of sensation." Nick replied with a cool smile.

"Ahh indeed, so let's say hypothetically, if there was such a need, and you were to provide for it, what kind of coverage are we talking about?"

"Pick a district."

"Really?"

"Yup, I've been able to operate for a long time in the districts, all while staying under the radar as it were." Explained Nick.

"And for this coverage, what would be your asking price?"

"What do you think it's worth?"

"Ahh I see what you're doing there, nice try."

"What am I doing?"

"Classic negotiation strategy, playing games, loops of logic, classic fox behavior. But games to me, and I don't like games." Explained the tiger a bit annoyed.

"Really now, I figured you loved games. Considering you've been playing one since the start of this meeting." Nick replied, confronting the tiger.

"Is that SO?" the tiger replied back.

"Yes, you know damn well that you know that I know, you little insinuations moments ago, insulting my assistant to her face and my own, all the while gauging our response." Explained Nick

The tiger sat silently, continuing to listen.

"And furthermore, I came to do business, serious business, and it seems you're just wasting my time."

Nick got up to leave, and motioned for his "assistant" to follow. Judy was reluctant at first but then got up and walked over to Nick, she hid her face from the tiger but she winced seemingly having failed. Nick took her arm and began to walk out.

"Wait!" called out the tiger.

Nick and Judy stopped; Nick turned looking over his shoulder almost dismissively.

"Perhaps, I was a bit too…playful in my actions, come please, let us continue." Offered the tiger.

Nick looked at Judy, and motioned for her to stay, he then walked over to the tiger leaning close.

"Apologize." Nick said plainly.

"What?" the tiger replied incredulously.

"You heard what I said, apologize, to her."

The tiger raised an eyebrow and looked at the rabbit, who was staring back at him, then back at the fox.

"Ahh, more than just an assistant." He stated.

"Never you mind what she is." Nick glared back at the tiger.

The tiger and Nick stared into each other's eyes as if reading for a fight, however the tension broke when the tiger broke out into resounding laughter. Nick taken aback not sure how to react, the tiger once calmed down from his laughter.

"You're absolutely right, one should not allow anyone to insult someone's lady." He said to Nick.

The tiger turned his head and looked at the rabbit.

"I apologize madam, my behavior was indeed boorish." He admitted.

The tiger stood up, motioning to his tigresses to enjoy themselves.

"Come with me, allow me to apologize over a drink, and perhaps we can discuss more about this 'relationship' you wish to have."

He motioned his paw towards the nearby stairs, inviting Nick and Judy to ascend.

"By the way, I forgot to ask, what IS your name madam?" offering his paw.

"Oh…it's uh Francine." Replied Judy, thinking of the only female name she could think of, while shaking the tiger's paw.

Nick winced, mentally slapping himself.

"My name is Jerome." Replied the tiger.

The three went upstairs to the second floor, and into Jerome's office, which had a large window of one way glass overlooking the club. Jerome poured 3 glasses, keeping one to himself and pushing the other two across his desk. He sat down making himself comfortable.

"So brass tacks, what can you offer?" asked the tiger plainly this time.

"Total distribution over the city, I'm not sure exactly where you already are, but I know where you're not, or at least I haven't seen any of these show up there." Replied Nick holding a rush vial in his palm.

"Well if you can deliver, I can offer five percent."

"Five percent? I thought you were trying to apologize."

The tiger laughed. "Trust me, this stuff is highly prized, and very profitable, your five percent would equal…."

The tiger jotted down a number on a piece of paper, and slid it across to Nick, he picked it up and his eyes went wide. The number was eight figures long.

"Wow….that's five percent?"

"Mmhmm. And that's just to start. Like I said, highly profitable."

"Very nice." Nick said showing 'Francine' the number on the paper.

"Of course before I remand any product to you, I will of course need some kind of 'collateral'. Consider it a 'good faith payment.'"

"Just let me know how much, and I will work something out." replied Nick producing one of his old business cards, and a sly smile.

Jerome leaned over and took the card, and smiled back.

"I shall make arrangements."

"Well now that, that is done, I invite you to enjoy the benefits of my club, for my exclusive members. The two of you. Welcome to the Apex."

"It's good to be on top. Right, Francine?" Asked Nick.

Judy sauntered up to Nick and hung on him, and ran a paw along his chest and looked at him.

"I love being on top." She said seductively with a wink, playing her character.

The tiger laughed mirthfully.

"Humor, I love that. As I always see you have to truly enjoy your work if you're ever to find true satisfaction."

"Allow me to walk you down."

The three left Jerome's office, and walked down to the first floor again. Nick and Judy relaxed as they got to the first floor; they have managed to get past the gatekeeper, and fooled him into believing they were one of his own. Maybe it was more relaxed tones of the music that was playing now that seemed calming, almost trance like in its melody.

As Jerome was walking with them, he turned to Nick and slid a brushed metal card into Nick's pocket

"I treat all my executive members well, remember that. Good Night." The tiger replied with a wink.

Nick and Judy started to make their way past the bouncer at the lounge entrance. The plan seemed to go off without a hitch, they had made it.

* * *

Then the other hoof dropped, namely in the form of two familiar and loud Oryx brothers, and as if on cue, the music changed from a soft relaxing melody into something more aggressive. Nick and Judy could literally feel the color leave their respective faces, not but a few yards from the front door and this happens. Wide eyed and almost completely paralyzed.

"Oh my god, Nick, Judy, What are you doing here? Are you guys on a date!" said Pronk

"Hey, you trying to embarrass them leave them alone!" replied Bucky.

"Why not, she used to be our neighbor were practically friends."

"Yeah, but her boss Chief buffalo butt probably never lets her have a night off, let them enjoy it!"

"Shut up."

"No you shut up!"

Pronk and Bucky's bickering aside, Nick craned his head around to catch the deathly glare of Jerome, beside him his bouncers, and apparently he heard everything and put two and two together and recognized Judy.

The entire room seem to move in slow motion, Jerome, the bouncers, the rest of the mammals on the dance floor everything seemed to move as if time was slowing to a crawl, his adrenaline flowing, he realized that Jerome had ordered his guards to draw weapons. Each one reaching into their jackets, Nick turned to Judy, Pronk and Bucky.

"Everybody get down!" as he tackled them out of the way and over to a nearby table.

That moment, which in reality was just a flash, gunfire rang out as Jerome and his bouncers fired into the kill zone where Nick and Judy were standing. They simply weren't there. By the time they realized this, Nick and Judy had drawn their weapons and fired back, taking out the bouncers to Jerome's immediate left and right.

Jerome's surprised reaction at this caused him to step back and call over his radio.

"I need more guards! Kill the Rabbit and Fox, NOW!"

The mammals in the club scattered in all directions, the herd mentality taking over. Judy crouched back down under the nearby table.

"Pronk, Bucky, Get out of here now!"

"ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod." Gibbered Pronk.

"We didn't realize, we are so sorry." Apologized Bucky.

"JUST GET OUT! GET SAFE!" she screamed.

Judy and Nick fired to cover Pronk and Bucky's escape, as Nick grabbed Judy and they ran towards the bar, and dove behind it.

"Never a dull moment, huh carrots?!" joked Nick.

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" replied Judy.

A bouncer happened to get the drop on them and jumped onto the bar, before either of them could dispatch the bouncer, he was shot from another angle with enough forge to pull him off the bar top. Nick and Judy turned their guns towards the direction of the shot.

"Seems you two crazy kids are the type to get into trouble tonight." Said the well-dressed figure

"Winston!?" replied Nick with a shocked expression.

"The one and only. Now let's get you out of here." Replied the Wolf.

As the three of them tried to make their way to the emergency exit towards the back of the club, Winston with expert marksmanship would dispatch a bouncer, usually with one shot, and with a tad bit of aged viciousness, shooting them in the head, or slamming them into a wall or table and point blank putting a bullet through their head.

As they manage to find a momentary respite, Judy stepped in front of them.

"No what are we doing, Nick we have to chase him!"

"We got a name, Judy, let's regroup, call in some backup!"

"Nick, we have the opportunity to end this right now!"

"If you do that, I of course cannot be here when any John Q. Laws show up." Clarified Winston.

"Nick!" pleaded Judy

Nick looked at Winston.

"I'll back you up either way kid." Replied the wolf.

"Screw it, let's get this bastard." Muttered Nick as she chambered a round from his fresh mag.

The group went back into the main room of the club; more guards had come in to find the duo. Winston caught them by surprise and managed to dispatch two of them before they realized he was hostile. Judy managed to find a pillar supporting the upper level to take cover behind; some bullets impacted the pillar kicking off chunks of debris. Judy leaned out slightly taking a few shots, leaning back in as the return fire came in. Nick moved to flank the guards to the right as they seemed focused on Judy, the fox took up cover behind a bench seat, he took a deep breath and popped up like a gopher out of a hole taking shots at whatever guards were closest, thinning their numbers by another three, before diving under his cover.

The return hail of gunfire proved that Nick's choice of cover was surprisingly inadequate as several bullets ripped through the back of the bench and into the floor.

Several of the remaining guards retreated back towards the entrance of the lounge area, as Judy blind fired from her spot to take the heat off of Nick.

"Nick, get over here, I got you!" shouted Judy.

Nick moved back towards Judy as Winston dispatched a few guards that had peaked their heads out to see where the rabbit and fox were.

"Come on kids, we are losing time here." Warned Winson.

"What you got somewhere to be old wolf." Joked Nick

"No but I'm assuming you want to catch this guy." He replied.

"He's right we got to finish this." She replied.

Judy reached and got her smaller pistol from her thigh holster.

"Cover me." As she bounced on her feet.

"Whoa, what are you going to do?" Nick asked concerned.

"You know me." She replied as she took off running.

"That's what I mean!" the fox screamed as she moved like a grey blur.

Judy took a run and jumped off a table and jumped up into the air and over the second floor balcony, landing on the floor above. Nick and Winston were completely amazed she was able to jump vertically that high. A few moments later, the sound of gunfire sounded out from the lounge area.

"Carrots? Judy!" called out Nick.

As first silence, Nick and Winston ran up to the entrance to the lounge area, and saw the only mammal standing was Judy, she had managed to shoot the remaining guards by herself. Nick stood impressed, Winston simply chuckled.

"I can see why you took to her." Winston commented at Nick.

With the remaining guards down, they trio proceeded up to Jerome's office, Judy kicked the door open and shouted the words she had been wanting to say to that tiger all night

"ZPD! Put your hands up! Aw crap." She said as she realized the office was empty.

"There is no way in hell he slipped past us." Said Nick.

They looked around the office, for any sign of the tiger. The office had a desk, some stylish club furniture and a few book shelves against the wall. Nick walked up to the desk, he noticed the names on some of the paperwork "Jerome Chandler"

"Well we got a last name, Chandler." Stated Nick.

"Jerome, Jerome, the Metronome." Commented Winston.

Judy looking around the room was about to let her frustration get the best of her when she heard a slight 'whoosh' coming from the nearby bookcase. She got close to the sound, and felt an air current rushing through the seam between the middle case and the right one. On the book shelf was a still metronome, it's classic pyramidal shape, wooden case, metal cross bar with weight attached. She tried to pick up the metronome but it seemed glued down to the shelf. Then it hit her, she paced over to the desk and looked at the paperwork on the desk, that same metronome logo he had on his correspondence, the club card. It was like his personal calling hard.

She grabbed one of the random pieces of paper and went back to the bookshelf, she set the weight of the metronome to match that of the logo, with the weight almost on top and set it to start. It swung back and forth slowly, clicking at the end of each swing. Around the fifth swing, a sound popped from behind the bookshelf and it effortlessly swung open, revealing a stairway that led down.

"This has got to be it." Said Judy looking back at Nick and Winston.

"OK, but I'm calling it in." replied Nick

"Good idea."

Nick dialed the phone his smartphone, it rang a few times and the desk sergeant finally picked up.

"Zootopia Police Department." Stated the desk sergeant.

"This is Officer Wilde, we need back up at the Apex Club in Sahara Square, shots fired, and we are in pursuit of a suspect."

After Nick hung up the phone, he paced over to Winston and gave him a hug.

"Thanks, Winston, for bailing me out…again."

"Hey no problem kid, I know what you're doing is a tough job, just be careful."

"Well I try, but you see how we live."

"I know, that's why I say be careful."

"Well, Ms Hopps, this is where we must part company." The wolf said as he offered his paw

Judy walked over to the wolf and instead gave him a hug.

"Guess it's hugs today." As the wolf hugged back.

"I just wanted to say thanks for being saving us back there." Said Judy.

"Nothing to it. Any friend of Nick's is a friend of mine." He replied back with a smile.

"But I have to bid you adieu, you two, it would not be a wise thing to be here when the police arrive. Like Lash Larue, this is where I ride off into the sunset, for now at least." The wolf smiled.

Winston changed out the mag from his gun and slapped in a new one.

"Also, I got to make sure Jimmie isn't watering down the drinks again." He said with a smile, as he left.

Winston left, leaving Nick and Judy to their job of chasing down the Jerome. The duo changed mags in their guns, and walked down the stairs.

* * *

Chapter 7: Disturbances

Zootopia…Sahara Square…Beneath the Apex Club

Nick and Judy descended to the bottom of the stairway, finding a tunnel just as Winston suspected. They started moving their way down the tunnel; a small leaky pipe had created a small line of water on the ground, past it the frantic paw prints of a running tiger, meaning he's not as far ahead as they thought.

Making their way to the end of the tunnel they find another set of stairs much like the one they initially descended. They walk softly up to the top landing and slowly open the door, they peer in and see storage racks and boxes, the ware house is dark, the lights of Sahara Square peeking through the windows.

Nick and Judy step into the warehouse, each holding a small flashlight in their paws as they pan around with their guns. Nobody around, the eerie quiet a complete change of pace from the frantic club and gun fight they just left.

Nick and Judy explore, looking for the tiger, as they pass rows and rows of boxes, Nick finds an open one, peering into it.

"Vials, looks like this is the place alright." He whispers.

"Back up should be here soon, we can confiscate this whole warehouse." She replied back

"Still got to catch the feline." He comments back.

As they move to the end of the stack they are in, they hear the sound of footfalls on upper catwalk, Nick and Judy spin to face it, the cones of their lights pointing to the catwalk above.

"What do you think?" asked Nick.

"He's still creeping around, I think I should go up there, you stay down here." Judy suggested.

"Split up?"

"Yeah."

"You sure about that?" Nick replied concerned.

"I can walk up there and not make a sound, it's darker down here and you can see better then I can." She replied.

Nick simply huffed.

"It'll be ok." She reassured

"Ok, but just holler when you need me." He replied.

Judy smiled back at Nick.

"I'm sure you'll get there in the 'Nick' of time." She played giving him a wink.

"Har har." He replied flatly.

The two split up, with Judy ascending the nearby stairway connected to the cat walks above. Nick took to the floor trying to stay near Judy. The catwalks would often run over the stacks causing Nick to have to hurry to the end of one stack just to keep close.

Another sound, like a pipe clattering on the floor, Judy panning around in the direction of the sound, her heart racing, pounding louder than the base beat from the nightclub, she walked to the end of the catwalk, which had ended at a balcony at the far end of the warehouse. She looked left and then right, still not seeing anything. She could have sworn she heard a sound, but nothing around her.

A deep sense of foreboding and a sudden thought, a rush of awareness, but in this situation no amount of worry is too much. Her eyes floated upward and as they hit the top of the sockets, she craned her head up slowly along with her flash light scanning into the piping just above her. She managed to illuminate the oscillating tail before she felt a powerful pair of legs kicking her in the chest.

Judy let out a loud cry of pain as she went sliding along the floor, firing a couple of shots in direction of the pipes, the sounds of a few ricochets on metal pipe.

"Judy!" called out Nick from elsewhere in the warehouse.

Judy regained her footing and raced after the sound of the footsteps, running along the catwalk, she saw the flickering tail of her quarry; he took a left at one of the intersections and raced ahead fading from Judy's flashlight beam. She continued to run, knowing that she would encounter him.

Suddenly it seemed like the floor fell out from under her, Jerome had pulled a pin from the catwalk support and the section came tumbling down into stacks of boxes below, Judy hit with a hard slam, and what sounded like soda cans popping, the metallic taste in her mouth making it feel almost numb.

She pushed herself up, seemingly in a cloud of what seemed like fog and looked up at the tiger, who was pointing his gun at her, she froze.

Jerome took stock is what was happening below him; he simply withdrew his weapon deciding not to shoot her and shook his head, and continued away.

Judy tried to get back to her feet, they felt wobbly, she took a few paces and she fell to her knees. Something was off, she felt anxious, her heart racing.

'God, why do I feel this way, I didn't break anything.' She thought to herself

She wrapped her arms around herself, thinking she broke a rib or something, but it didn't explain the racing heart. Then she felt it, like a point of fire in her brain, a single brilliant point, and it expanded outward, suddenly the colors seemed brighter, she dropped the flashlight, it's beam almost unbearable to look at. It clattered and spun on its axis on the floor coming to rest pointing back at the boxes. She gasped as she felt a sensation, a tinge of pleasure, surprised by it, a feeling that up that point in her life, only Nick made her feel. She gasped almost quietly as she experienced a surge of endorphins so intense it made her head ache. She pressed the palms of her paws against her temples, trying to steel herself against what she felt was a bolt of pain, it hurt intensely, she wasn't sure whether she cried out in pain or if she had only done so in her head, but the pain faded slightly and the rush of pleasure returned.

The tinge of pleasure and pain at the same time, bombarded with an almost electrical feeling, she dropped to the floor, her body twitching involuntarily, muscles spasming, nerves firing, ragged breathing, the occasional soft gasp at the bolts of pain or pleasure.

Judy's eye happened to catch the glint of a broken vial that rested in the flashlight beam, it was the same that was in the inhaler, the same they found elsewhere in the warehouse, her eyes moved past it, to another, and then another, all smashed and ruptured, their contents spilled out into the air. That had seeped into her lungs, her skin, massive amounts of a chemical that she witnessed in minute quantities land a tiger boy in the hospital.

But those thoughts gave way to the feelings of intensity that played out in her head, and for a moment there was only the feeling, the brilliant heat of that feeling and thoughts and memories of Nick, the precise recollections of him, his scent, his paws, his muzzle, his teeth.

Her concern for the outside world seemed to fade away, seeming far and gone, as she sunk deeper and deeper into this abyss of sensation.

* * *

Meanwhile….

Nick was running as fast as he could down the length of the warehouse trying to find Judy, he ran past a stack corner, running into Jerome, the two froze and pointed weapons at each other.

"Freeze, Furball, you under arrest!" shouted Nick.

"I don't think so, fleabait." Replied Jerome.

"You're going down." Nick reaffirmed.

"Sorry to tell you this, but you're going to let me go." The tiger admitted

"And why would I do that?" Nick asked incredulously.

"Probably because your partner just sucked down enough Rush to put down several elephants." Jerome answered.

"What!" replied Nick straightening up, wide eyed.

"Poor rabbit fell off the catwalk and into several boxes of the stuff, she's probably well into it by now, assuming she doesn't have a spasm that breaks her own back."

"Oh my god." Nick said through gritted teeth.

"So you have to choose, be a hero and get the bad guy or save your girl." The tiger put plainly, pointing in Judy's direction.

Nick hesitated for a moment, holding his position, but every muscle in his body telling him to let him go.

"You bastard." Replied Nick as he lowered his weapon and ran for Judy.

"The better choice, Wilde, even I can see that!" yelled out Jerome as started to run, making his escape.

Nick ran down the stacks and saw the broken piece of catwalk, the crushed boxes, and ripped and ruptured aluminum vials that littered the floor, scattering at his foot paws hit them, clinking against each other and the ground. Realizing how much Rush had to have been released as vapor into the air. The he saw her. Judy Hopps, the love of his life, in weak spasms on the floor, her purple eyes, almost blank, small grunts of air passing, a white foam had formed on her mouth, and the contents of her stomach in a puddle on the floor, the fur on her head soaked in her own sick.

"Judy!" yelled out Nick as he knelt down and lightly turned her body, allowing her mouth to drain so as not to drown.

"Judy, speak to me, say something, anything." He pleaded.

He received only a gurgling exhale as a response. He looked into her eyes, the light seemingly wasn't there, like she was elsewhere, the blank and distant expression, as her eyes rolled around almost sleep like in her head.

"I got….I got to call somebody, I got to get help." He said to himself trying to keep himself from freaking out completely.

* * *

Elsewhere….Apartment in Savannah Central

The loft apartment barely moved into, moving boxes still scattered around, its resident having sought sleep after days of exhaustive work. The smartphone on its charger, on the end table next to the bed rings.

The occupant grunts as he is addled out of his restful sleep, simply grunting dismissively at the phone that dared to interrupt his sleep. After several rings it goes quiet and seemingly whoever was calling went away, then it rang again.

This time with more vibrating intensity or at least it seemed to.

"Uh, what!" muttered the resident as he grasped the phone with outstretched paw.

Instead of a furred paw as one would expect in many of the residents of this fair city, this occupant reached for the phone with metal limb, of hardened alloys and ceramic. After pushing himself up from the bed, he answered the phone.

"This is Agent Kaiden Ellison, this better be good."

"Kaiden, this is Nick, I need help!" yelled out the fox.

"What's going on?" asked Kaiden still wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"It's Judy….I think she's dying!"

Kaiden felt a bolt of adrenaline surge as the sentence hit his brain, awakening him fully in an instant.

"Where are you!?"

"Sahara Square, in a warehouse, right next to a place called the Apex Club."

"Yeah, I know it, I'll be there with a med team. Nick, calm down, and get her outside."

Kaiden accessed his comm system and paged anyone at Bureau 13, not surprisingly Hamilton came on the line.

"Good Evening….Kaiden….How can…I assist…you?"

"Hamilton, I need a Code Blue evacuation of a Red Level asset, Sahara Square, warehouse near the Apex Club."

"Who…..is it?"

"It's Judy."

* * *

Zootopia…..Sahara Square….Warehouse next to Apex Club.

10 minutes later.

Nick had managed to get Judy outside, trying desperately to make sure she kept breathing, the stuttering beat of helicopter blades fades in from the distance and before he can react is above him, the spotlight on the chopper illuminating, the ground, him and the rabbit in his arms. Within seconds they land and the occupants of the chopper come out to gather them.

Several technicians strap the rabbit to a backboard for easier transport and quickly get them both into the chopper.

"Is it only you and her?" asked the otter technician, screaming over the chopper blades.

"Yes, she's dying, please save her! Please!" pleaded Nick.

"We will do the best we can Mr. Wilde." The technician replied.

The techs in the chopper were already starting to work on Judy as they closed the door and pulled up into the air, making emergency speed towards Zootopia General. The technician pointed to a pair of headphones with a mic attached and pointed to Nick, as he put on his own set. Nick put them on listening to the technician speak.

"What happened?" asked the head technician.

"She got exposed to a huge amount of some drug, it was for a case we have been working."

"How long?"

"I don't know ten maybe twenty minutes." Replied Nick.

"Hey Agent, we got to get there pronto" said the technician to the pilot.

"You don't need to remind me how important she is." Said a familiar voice.

Nick turned and looked up front, a familiar blonde colored wolf with glowing blue eyes was at the controls, using his enhanced vision mode to see through the night above Zootopia. He looked back at Nick.

"Don't worry, it will be ok." Kit mustering a small smile trying to comfort Nick.

Kit turned back forward and keyed the comms to external transmission.

"This is bravo echo one three niner to zebra golf dispatch, how copy?" inquired Kit over the radio.

Nick could hear some muffled chatter in the crosstalk on his headset not able to make out the other end of the conversation.

"Casevac coming in hot, patient is one, female rabbit, twenty four years of age." Replied Kit.

"Twenty five! She's twenty….five." corrected Nick at first thinking it was important at first but not pressing the issue.

Nick turned back to Judy and held her paw, they managed to use a small portable vacuum to suck out the regurgitated liquid out of her mouth and throat, clearing her airway and already had an oxygen mask on her. Nick felt horrible seeing her like that, horrible thoughts went through his head, and while he did he best to dismiss them. He kept reminding himself 'Judy is a fighter, she will get through this.' But it still was disturbing to see her like this.

A few minutes later what seemed like an eternity to Nick they touched down on the helipad at Zootopia General, the technicians quickly got Judy and Nick off the helicopter handing her off to the medical team that had come up to meet them. The technicians briefed them on Judy's condition; Nick could only make out a few phrases 'elevated pulse and BP' 'stimulant overdose' 'barely responsive.' That last one felt crushing, like a kick to the chest.

The time getting her downstairs and to the ER went by like a blur, Nick found himself outside the doors to one of the trauma rooms looking in, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion or maybe it was the adrenaline, either way, his thoughts were like clay, unable to articulate words, simply praying to whatever deity above that may exist to grant mercy and spare his beloved rabbit, his eyes welling with tears.

Nick was so preoccupied he didn't even notice someone talking to him; he heard a muffled tone in the pattern of a voice. He felt a paw on his shoulder; he finally looked away from Judy to see who it was, looking into the face of a familiar, older and concerned Fox.

"….me what happened?" the last of the Fox's sentence came through Nick's fog.

"What?" Nick asked.

"Nick, I need you to tell me what happened?" the voice clearer now, the face resolving into Kaiden.

Nick took a deep breath, Kaiden shaking him slightly to snap him out of it.

"I hear you. She got drugged."

"What kind?" Kaiden asked.

"It's an aerosol, a vapor, it's from a case we've been working. Its street name is Rush." Replied Nick.

"Look tell me she's going to be alright?!" Nick asked almost demanding to know as his gripped Kaiden's shirt.

"Hey, hey, these doctors are the best in Zootopia, handpicked by B13, She's in the best paws." Comforted Kaiden.

"I just can't…lose her." Nick whispered choking up on those words.

"Nick! She'll make it." The older fox comforted.

"But you gotta be strong for her." He continued.

"I know….I just can't stop thinking that she….."

"I know kid, but listen, I've seen Judy at her strongest, she's torn the shit out of legions of soldiers to find you, so don't think this is going to get her." Kaiden explained.

"But what I need to know is what the heck is Rush?" he asked.

Nick pulled a vial out of his pocket, the one from the blue inhaler they confiscated.

"It's this." He presented in his paw.

Kaiden took the vial into his paw, looking at it.

"You mind if I…." he asked.

"You do whatever you want, K, right now my mind is on Judy."

"I know kid, I know." Kaiden replied kindly.

* * *

Later…

Judy was finally stabilized, the ER workers managed to use a combination of drugs to neutralize the drugs in Judy's system, before they had a chance to do permanent damage. She was still unconscious but she seemed comatose.

She had been moved to a patient room, with Nick sitting by her bed watching her all night, he would see her twitch occasionally wondering what she was dreaming about. Caressing her paw ever so gently, giving it a kiss, he nuzzled her cheek as much as he could because of the oxygen mask.

"Judy." Nick whispered, his voice choking up.

"I know you're in there."

"And I _need_ you to come back to me."

"You're my whole world, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

"I would still just be some sly fox working a pawpsicle hustle."

"And then you came into my life, and everything changed. My whole life changed."

Nick teared up, sniffling, his voice cracking.

"You made me better, you showed me that things can get better."

"I can't do that, I don't know how."

"So you _have_ to come back to me. You can't leave…."

Nick sobbed into her shoulder.

"You can't leave me. Please." He whispered his plea.

Nick held her paw, and simply cried, wishing hoping she would awaken with the coming light. This entire evening absolutely exhausting, he felt his wet eyes droop shut, not remembering when exactly he feel asleep.

* * *

Nick found himself standing in the hospital, eerily quiet, and no one seemed around. He looked in the room for Judy, the bed was empty, neatly made. He stepped into the hall, not one person was anywhere.

"Hello!" called out Nick but No answer.

Nick walked around looking for someone, anyone, surely the entire building couldn't be empty he pondered. Still searching he walked through the double doors at the end of the hallway, finding himself in a familiar street, the sound of revving engines and screeching tires.

Nick ran, finding that familiar door and running into it full force. It burst open, finding himself in a field of blue flowers. As Nick was about to panic and run up the hill, he heard a voice.

"I wouldn't go that way Nick."

Nick stopped mid pace and turned to see a Fox, looking exactly like him, his coat a darker shade of orange and eyes of deep burgundy, wearing a dark suit of black or navy blue.

"Who….are you?" Nick asked almost hesitantly.

"You don't recognize yourself?" asked the fox.

"I…I don't know." Replied Nick reluctantly, still taken aback by the seemingly mirror image of the himself standing before him.

"You shouldn't go that way." The fox warned.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Because….you know exactly where it ends." The fox replied.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" asked Nick

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." Said the fox.

"I don't much care where…" answered Nick

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go." Replied the fox

"So long as I get _somewhere_ " added Nick

"Oh, you're sure to do that, if you only walk long enough." Replied the fox pointing into the field of flowers.

Nick turned looking into the field of flowers, and then back up the hill to the tree, he felt an inexplicable pull towards the field, he began to walk, his trepidation of the flowers seemed to fade to a dull concern. He walked for what seemed like forever, until there was no hill, no tree, only endless fields of blue flowers all around him.

He saw a figure in the middle of the field, a familiar grey rabbit, he walked up to the rabbit.

"Hello?" inquired Nick.

"Hello." The rabbit said plainly.

"Judy is that you?" he asked.

"Yes that's me, have we met somewhere?"

"Met somewhere? It's me Nick."

"No, you can't be Nick, you're close though." She answered is disbelief

"I'm looking for him though." She explained.

"But I'm me."

"Of course you're you, but you can't be Nick."

"Why not?"

"Because silly, Nick doesn't look like you."

"What do I look like?"

Judy held up a hand mirror, and Nick was shocked at the image in the mirror, he looked like himself, except his fur was a darker shade, and his eyes, deep burgundy. He stepped back frightened of the image in the mirror, he closed his eyes not wanting to believe it.

Nick stepped back and bumped into a wall, he opened his eyes, he was back in the empty hospital, in the room that Judy was in, that she SHOULD be in, there was a floor length mirror next to the bathroom door, he checked his reflection again, it was still the other fox, the burgundy eyes and darker fur.

"This can't be true, I'm Nick Wilde." He professed.

"But this is who you are, who you've been, this way forever." Said Judy standing next to him.

"How long is forever?" asked Nick

"Sometimes, just one second." She replied.

* * *

Nick awoke with a start, not the fear and terror that he was accustomed to but the disoriented and unsure feeling of not knowing for a moment what was real. His breathing was heavy and panting. Judy was still there, her chest rising and falling with each breath, he looked out the window, it was still night. The clock said 5:22 am, the hour of the wolf.

He went to the bathroom, turning on the faucet to splash his face with water. He felt unsure, he reached over and turned on the nearby light switch, and looked into the mirror, his face the familiar bright orange fur and deep green eyes.

"If I am Nicholas Wilde…." He reassured himself.

"Then who…was that?" he asked as if asking the reflection in the mirror.

* * *

 _"The hour between night and dawn. The hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghost and demons are most powerful, the hour of the wolf is also the hour when most children are born._ "

* * *

Chapter 8: Regroup

Zootopia…Zootopia General…9:37am

Judy's awoke groggy, the cool puff of oxygen filling her nose from the nasal cannula that was strapped to her muzzle. She raised her left paw and noticed an IV and tape on the top of it. She looked to her right to see a sleeping fox in the reclining chair next to her, he had pulled it close to the bed and draped his head and arm next to her while lying mostly in the chair. She reached over and brushed his orange fur delicately.

'oh, you sweetheart.' She thought to herself, as she felt her lips pull into a weak smile.

She remembered much of the events of last night, even some of the more vivid imagery and feelings, but she didn't remember much after that, she didn't remember being brought to the hospital.

Nick stirred as he felt the motion of his fur and awoke, his gaze immediately locking eyes with hers

"Carrots…Judy." He whispered softly

"Hey." She replied just as softly.

"Are you….alright?" he asked.

"Of course." She replied.

Nick nuzzled her paw. He was happy she was awake and ok, part of him wanted to hug and kiss her but in her weakened state he figured best save it for later.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

"I….I called in the Calvary." He replied.

"Huh?" she quirked her head slightly, an ear rising.

"Kaiden and Kit." He replied

Judy smiled when she heard the names of her dear friends.

"I'm just glad you're alright." He said as he petted her.

"I'm glad too, I should have been smarter than that."

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah, I remember Jerome leading me down a catwalk and falling."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, when the vapor hit me, I just remember the way he looked at me. And the fact he didn't even shoot, like as if he felt it would be a waste of a bullet. I'll never forget that stare. Did you get him?"

Nick hesitated not wanting to answer, he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, after the third try he finally mustered a reply

"N….No, I had to….let him go."

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"I had him, and I had to let him go. Because he said you were….." he trailed off not wanting to say the word.

Judy winced at the realization, she mentally slapped herself, she put herself in danger AND let the bad guy get away, and to make matters worse, Nick had to call in Kaiden and Kit to bail her out. Nick saw this and comforted her.

"Look, don't worry, we'll catch him, we'll get the bad guy. I'm more worried about you right now."

"I know….I'm sorry Nick." She lamented

Nick was taken by surprise, he was almost sure she was going to argue that he should have arrested Jerome first and then come back for her, but she didn't.

"It'll be ok." He said.

Judy was fiddling with the sheet that was covering her; she looked up to look Nick in the eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" she started, changing the subject.

"Of course, Carrots."

"What do you remember…about the reactor?" she hesitated, looking down and then into Nick's eyes.

Nick's eyes went wide for a moment then back to normal.

"Oh wow, I haven't thought about that since, well since we woke up in those tanks."

"I know, but what do you remember exactly?"

"I mean um, same as you I guess. I remember going down there, plugging Clawhauser in, and the realization that we had to go in there. Pretty much right up until we opened the door." Nick replied, his gaze staring off as he was retrieving the memory.

"Yeah, but I mean, do you remember….dying?" she looked at him with sad eyes.

Nick looked at Judy his mouth slightly agape, unsure of how to answer.

"Do you?" he inquired his expression of deep concern.

"I remember, flashes, that rush stuff, must have kicked up some fragment. I remember you asking me something, a question. Maybe? And I remember your face, it seemed still, like a picture." She described her sad expression fixated on an image in her mind, if she could tear up she would have.

"Judy….."

"Nick, what did you ask me? What did you say?"

Nick was saddened by this, as if he forgot something important, left behind some crucial detail but not knowing what it could possibly be.

"I'm sorry…..I don't know. I don't remember." He whispered as he cradled her paw, caressing it.

The moment was broken when they both hear a soft knocking on the door. The pair looked towards the door, and a familiar fox head popped into view.

"Hey. Can we come in?" asked Kaiden with a relieved smile on his face.

"Sure." Judy smiled sweetly.

The door opened as Kaiden, Kit and Clawhauser came into view, Clawhauser sporting a small bandage on his cheek.

"Hey guys." She addressed them.

Judy looked around at the three of them, each of them was smiling back at her, she could clearly see the relief on their faces, and the concern they had for her.

"Ben, what's with this?" she said pointing to her cheek referencing Ben's bandage.

"Oh, this, it's just a scratch, one of the missions got a little rougher than we were expecting." Replied Clawhauser.

"Hey! You two are supposed to be taking care of him." Judy playfully scolded Kaiden and Kit.

"Oh that, it's nothing, it's not even going to scar." Kit defended in the same tone.

"Well it better not, or I'm gonna kick your butt. You can't be scuffing up my favorite feline." she replied.

Judy turned back to Clawhauser.

"Seriously though, how are things going, sweetie?"

"Things are going good, I'm making good on my promise, and I'm fixing my mistakes."

"I wish you wouldn't blame yourself Ben."

"I know, Judy. But I'm doing good, I'm making things right."

"Just be careful." She said concerned.

"I try." He replied with a smile.

Judy turned to Kaiden

"Did Nick tell you what was going on?"

"Yeah, he filled us in last night, why?" inquired the fox.

"Well I was hoping you might have run the name, Jerome Chandler, he's a tiger."

"We can worry about that later Judy, right now….." replied Kaiden.

"No! Look I understand how I probably look, but I am not some fragile flower. We are in the middle of a case, and we need to solve it, or more people are going to be where I am." she interrupted.

Kaiden glanced over to Nick as if looking for direction; Nick shook his head as if not knowing how to answer. Judy quickly glanced along the respective foxes sight lines and waved her paw in front of them.

"Hey, Hey, I'm over here. Look I'm fine." She said.

"You sure?" asked Kaiden with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm ready to resume duty." She said confidently.

"Ok, then stand up." Kaiden said flatly.

"What?" she replied.

"You heard me, stand up."

Judy stared determined into Kaiden's eyes, and she stood up on the bed.

"See." She replied.

"Ok, just stand there."

"That all?"

"Yep, just stand there." Kaiden replied crossing his arms.

After about half a minute Judy's legs started to tremble, she strained against it, and then felt her legs give away as she fell backward; Nick caught her in mid fall and put her back down in the bed. Judy had an angry and annoyed expression on her face.

"You're injured Judy, you're not going to help anyone like that, if you're that bad off you can't even carry yourself." The fox explained.

"Well, I don't need working legs to continue an investigation, my brain still works." She replied

"Point taken." The fox admitted.

Kaiden looked over a at Kit and nodded, the wolf pulled out a laptop from a bag he had been carrying and handed it to Kaiden, who in turn set it up for Judy on her bed tray and slid it in front of her.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Bureau 13's database, I figured you would want to research your leads yourself." Kaiden replied back with a smile.

"So what was that about?" Judy asked referring to her standing challenge.

"Because I care about you. And I don't want to see yourself get hurt even more because you're so damned determined."

"And I know why, I know you don't want to show weakness. But sometimes, you have to acknowledge you're at the disadvantage and pull back to regroup. " the fox explained.

"Sometimes you have to take a step back, before you can take two steps forward." Said Kit.

Judy held her paws up.

"Alright, I get it, I get it. I give you a day." She said insistently.

"That's all we ask." Replied Kaiden.

Judy shot a glance to Nick

"You put them up to this didn't you?" she asked slyly.

"I was sleeping, Carrots." Nick said innocently.

"Truly?" she asked.

"Scout's honor." He replied holding up his paw in a ranger scout salute.

Judy studied his face for a moment, she hadn't given him a good look since she awoke but now she saw, his eyes were slightly bloodshot, and the eyelids had a slight puff on the lower halves.

"Did you….sleep ok?" she asked concerned in a lowered voice.

Nick kept his smile and relaxed expression, not saying anything at first.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He fibbed.

Judy smiled and turned back to the others.

"Kaiden, thank you for the laptop, it will help a lot. Can Nick and I have a minute alone?"

The group at first wondered what was important, but Kaiden nodded to Kit and Clawhauser, and pointed to the door. The three walked outside, with Kaiden closing the door. "We'll be right out here if you need us." He said.

After Judy heard the click of the door, she turned to Nick.

"Another dream?"

"It's fine Carrots, I'm more concerned about the fact that you nearly died last night." Replied Nick.

"And I'm concerned about the emotional well being of my favorite fox, so spill it."

Nick took a deep breath.

"Alright….this one was…..different." he started.

* * *

Several Hours Later….

Judy was getting bored, the only medical appliance left was the IV, which they had given her a high density nutrient drip, which despite her protest of help was making her feel a lot better, the headache that she had since she awoke had vanished and she was walking around on her own. She desperately wanted to leave, but had been ambushed into giving another day.

She hated this feeling, whether it was feeling helpless or trapped, but on the other paw, she knew it wasn't being done out of malice or spite, quite the contrary, they were doing it out of care and love. And while that gave her a warm feeling in her heart, she still felt antsy. So she decided to do the next best thing, investigate. Kaiden had given her a laptop with Bureau 13's database, a wealth of information that could lead to finding Jerome, but where to start, the database had a plethora of sources, ranging from criminal databases to intelligence files on political groups.

She decided to start from where she knew and go on from there.

Nick was outside talking to the doctor, the diagnosis was good, Judy was recovering quickly, and the drugs that were in her system were mostly neutralized when they brought her in the night before, there was no reason for her not to leave in the morning. Nick had heard a discussion of voices behind him, not paying it any mind until one of them raised into his perception.

"And I am an officer of the law, and if you two don't get out of my way, there is going to be trouble." Said the voice.

Nick turned and saw Detective Rollins having heated words with Kaiden and Kit.

"And who are you exactly?" demanded the cougar.

"We are friends of Judy." Replied Kaiden.

"Is that a fact? Funny, she's never mentioned you." Rollins chided in disbelief.

"I could say the same about you." Replied Kaiden.

Rollins stepped closer; eyeing Kaiden in the eyes, there was something about the fox's eyes that didn't sit right with him. They had an air of unnatural look to them. In fact the rough looks of both of them didn't sit right with him at all.

"What's up with your eyes, fox?"

"They see." Kaiden coldly replied.

"Look, I don't know what a couple of Chompers like you are doing outside Hopps' door, but she's a cop, you mess with her, you mess with me." He said defensively.

Kaiden decided to play the hand he was dealt and tapped Kit to make a discreet exit, the two walked away.

Nick received a text on his phone a few moments later, he checked it.

'Kaiden: It's ok, can't afford to blow cover."

'Nick: I'm sorry, I've never seen Rollins go off on someone like that.' He typed back.

'Kaiden: Doesn't matter, we're used to it. Heard worse actually.'

Nick frowned, hanging around Judy, he had actually forgotten about the prejudice. He shook his head amazed that he actually forgot about it, being in Judy's world with her made everything else fall away. 'Amazing' he thought to himself.

Nick walked in behind Rollins, the two saw Judy working on a laptop, she looked up.

"Detective Rollins! How are you?" she asked.

"Better than you I hear. Are you ok kid?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm better, can't wait to get out of here." She replied.

The cougar smiled

"Well you get your strength back, and I'll let the chief know about things here."

"What about the case?"

"The case? Wow, you really are dedicated." The cougar chuckled.

"Well it's still there, as soon as you get out. You sure you wouldn't want to hand this off to anyone?"

"Of course not!" she replied forcefully.

Rollins chuckled again.

"Never seen anyone that hungry for a case. Well I will tell the chief, it's still yours."

Rollins patted Judy on the shoulder and turned to leave.

"Oh by the way, Wilde, it's your job as a partner to keep the skels away from her door." He chided, tapping Nick in the chest.

"Skels?" Judy asked her Ear and eyebrow perked up.

"I'll explain it later." Nick jumped in, interrupting.

"Ahh, it's nothing, don't worry." Dismissed Rollins, as he walked out the door.

Several minutes went by and Judy eyed the open door.

"Hey, where are Kaiden and Kit."

"Yeah, about that…" Nick starting trying to find the words to explain.

Kaiden and Kit appeared in view of the door, with a few snacks from a vending machine.

"…yeah we got snacks." Said Kaiden, answering Judy's question.

Kaiden nodded at Nick, as his smartphone vibrated in his pocket. Nick checked his phone, a new text had come in, and he pulled out his phone nonchalant and checked it.

'Kaiden: I think her world is shattered enough, and I'm not going to say anything….and neither are you.'

Nick nodded at the message and then back at Kaiden, then turned his attention to Judy.

"Cuz junk food will help me recover right?" she said sweetly with a smile.

"Hey, it tastes good, anything that tastes good can't be bad for ya?" Kaiden played back.

"Wait, I thought it was everything that tastes good is bad for you." Replied Kit.

"Yeah, well….whatever." shrugged Kaiden.

The group had a good chuckle when the laptop beeped, Judy's name search got a hit. She looked down at the screen. '1 Match found, Level 7 Access required.'

"Level Seven? What's that." Commented Judy

"What?" remarked Kaiden with incredulity.

He spun the laptop around and in fact the error was prominently displayed.

"Level Seven? Level seven is only required when…." He replied looking at Kit.

"Oh shit." Kit said as he arrived at the realization.

Kaiden, Nick swung around over Judy's shoulder while Kit closed the door and propped a chair against it, then coming over to the laptop.

"What is it?" Just asked wondering what the reaction was.

"Level seven is the security level assigned to the database we extracted from the Illuminati networks."

The room took a sudden air of seriousness; Kaiden quickly typed in his credentials and unlocked the database. The search brought up a personnel file for one 'Jerome Chandler'

"Jerome Chandler, age 34" Judy read.

"Previously Executive Shipping Manager for….."

Judy's eyes went wide eyed as she read the next line.

"Kai Ren Medical."

Nick huffed and shook his head.

"You mean this guy is Illuminati?"

Kaiden checked the screen pointing at a field that read 'Database Crossmatch: None'

"No, he was Kai Ren Medical."

"What's the difference?" huffed Nick.

"The difference is one is a large Mega Corporation, the other is the illegitimate conspiracy by a group of multi-national, multi-cultural elites." Explained Kit.

"That implies there is such a thing as a 'legitimate conspiracy'." Chided Nick.

"Well….that would be us." Smirked Kaiden.

Nick quirked his head and looked at Judy.

"Technically what they do is not….entirely legal." Explained Judy

"And you're ok with that?" Nick replied.

Judy just silently shrugged choosing not to answer a seemingly loaded question.

"Look folks we can debate the finer points of intelligence work at another time, but the task at hand please." Kaiden commented pointing at the screen to refocus the group's train of thought.

Kaiden's phone chirped with a text message: 'Chem Analysis complete. You have to see it for yourself, check your box -H'

"Judy do me a favor, access my mail, the little envelope. Access the vial's chemical report." Requested Kaiden pointing to the screen.

Judy did what she was told and accessed the report, the report listed a number of long chemical names that were detected in the vial, but one item of interest caught her eye, it was located under the 'Active Ingredients' category. Judy's taken enough cough medicine in her life to know that active ingredient is the actual medicine, with inactive ingredients extra substances like dyes or flavorings, things that don't affect the drug in any way.

"PNH-A113" Judy recited, and perked an eyebrow.

Kaiden straightened up and held the side of his head with his paws.

"Oh son of a bitch" he muttered looking at Kit.

"Could we have been wrong about his association?" asked Kit.

"No, it's even worse than that." Kaiden replied.

"Really now, because it looks pretty bad." The wolf fired back.

"No it's worse, there's no way he could have known what he took. He probably saw a lab report or something."

"Yeah K, but didn't Doc Boyd say you can't just stick that stuff in a person as is, it has to be refined first."

"Yeah, he did say that…." Replied Kaiden suddenly being struck by realization

"There's somebody else." Kaiden whispered.

It was at this point Nick waved his hands in the air

"S'cuse me, can you clue US in please, after all, Carrots did almost die to bring us this lead." Demanded Nick.

Kaiden and Kit looked at the two.

"Sorry, sometimes the thought process just runs away." Kaiden replied.

Kaiden grabbed the nearby stool and laid it out for everyone.

"Ok, first off, PNH-A113, the prefix PNH, stands for Project: Nighthowler."

"So this stuff is made from night howlers too?" asked Judy.

"No, actually." Corrected Kaiden.

"This is what we found out after you guys left, Project Nighthowler, experimented with A LOT of substances, actual nighthowlers was one of them, but as we pored over the files we dug up, we found out that the project dealt with something like over 150 different drugs and chemical precursors."

"Of which, this stuff….Uh what do you call it 'Rush' is chemical number A-113."

"Not a very useful combat drug, if it lands people in the hospital" commented Judy

"To be honest, Judy, I don't think half of what this project produced was solely for combat, maybe it's for something else or it's a failed experiment, I don't know. But what I DO know is, Jerome Chandler can't be the only one involved."

"How do you figure?" she asked.

"Because Project: Nighthowler was an Illuminati black ops research project, and Jerome is former Kai Ren Medical NOT Illuminati."

"So how could he have known about it?" asked Judy rhetorically.

"Exactly!" replied Kaiden leveling his paw at the rabbit.

"So we're back to square one." Said Nick.

"Not necessarily." She replied.

"Can this thing look up Illuminati employees too?"

"Yes." Kaiden replied.

Judy typed into the search for 'Project Nighthowler', the project files came up and she waded through the wealth of information till she found what she was looking for 'Project Personnel'

"Now you said that the stuff that Jerome took, has to be refined right?" she asked while keeping focus on the laptop

"Yeah, the stuff is stored in an unrefined state for transport and long term storage." Replied Kit.

"Ok, so it's got to be a scientist." She muttered as she filtered out the superfluous people, security, administrators, etc.

The list shrunk to a more manageable size.

"Were any of these scientists captured or killed? Asked Judy"

"Yeah, a lot of 'em were killed, we captured a few of them though." Replied Kaiden

Kaiden moved over to the laptop and clicked several search options to remove deceased or captured scientists from the search results, shrinking them even more down to five.

"And lastly, let's search for known associates." Muttered Judy

She typed into the associates field 'Jerome Chandler', and upon hitting enter the results shrunk to one record, Judy clicked the 'show results' button and the group waited with palpable anticipation as to the result.

The record loaded onto the screen showing the picture of a water deer, young, innocent looking, her file loaded populating all the fields.

"Doctor Annabel Doran, age 26, Ph.D. in Bio-chemistry. My god, she's only a year older than I am." commented Judy.

"This has got to be it. She's the one making Rush." Concluded Kaiden.

"So she makes it, he turns around and distributes and sells it, making a nice tidy profit for them both." Concluded Nick.

"Yeah, but he doesn't know where the stuff really comes from." Commented Kaiden

"It doesn't matter Kaiden, he's still making a profit off of a poison that he's selling to kids." Judy chided.

"That's not what I mean; my meaning is Jerome may be in this for the money, or to be some kind of Kingpin. But what's the deer's angle?" he asked.

"What are you suggesting?" asked Nick.

"Illuminati don't just do things for the money or the power alone, those are just means to an end. Who is she trying to impress?" asked Kaiden.

"Maybe she didn't get the memo, but the council is dead." commented Kit.

"Well, I'll tell you what, maybe once we catch her, you can ask all those wonderful questions you guys are coming up with." Chided Nick.

"Can we go already." Pressed Nick.

Kaiden turned to Judy

"You feeling up to this?"

Judy didn't hesitate and immediately stood.

"Oh hell yes." She replied with vigor.

"Kit, get the doc so we can get her released."

"You got it." As Kit stepped off to get the doctor.

"Don't we still have to find them first?" asked Judy

"True, but there is only so many places you can hide a sophisticated drug lab in this city, but I've got an idea that may help us find them real quick."

"And then" asked Nick.

"Then…..well then my fellow mammals, we resoundly kick some ass."

* * *

Chapter 9: Where we go from here

Zootopia…Evening….Rush Lab….

While the lab was inside of an old industrial park, the color of iron rust and green copper; the equipment itself has the sheen of brushed metal, and the odor of different chemicals all of which stung the nose at the scent of it. The lower level the lab itself was on was a sub-basement, surrounded by brick and mortar, a challenge to maintain sterile conditions for the refinement of such sensitive materials.

Jerome had quickly descended the metal stairway, the quick clatter of his paws giving away his frantic movements, the quick nervous swish of his tail. The water deer and number of her lab assistants were packing away documents and laptops with critical information on them. A number of regular guard personnel were strapping barrels of sloshing liquid to dollies to move out to the waiting trucks outside.

"Doctor, what is your status?" asked the tiger.

The lab coat garbed water deer he was addressing was putting away notes and research papers into a briefcase, when she spun around and glared at the tiger.

"You cannot rush this sort of thing Jerome, these materials are very sensitive."

"But we have to move out now, that damn bunny cop made it to the hospital, who knows what she could be telling the police." He hissed

"You should have shot her then, but no you wanted to see what a rush overdose looked like." Fired back the deer.

"Well you want to see for yourself dear Jerome, come down here and I can arrange it for you."

"That won't be necessary." He replied

"Quite right, but this 'evacuation' is completely your fault, we have police and god knows who else at our warehouse, and very soon they will be able to trace those crates to this location, very sloppy, very sloppy indeed."

"I am certainly aware of how bad I screwed up, I don't need you to remind me."

"Fine, then tell me this, is the backup site up and running?"

"Yes, it is."

"Good. It's such a pity that we will have to leave this fair city for parts unknown. I actually liked it here."

"And you think I didn't, I have a nightclub that I am losing in all of this!"

"Well then perhaps you should have been a tad smarter in your business dealings."

"Just pack up your crap!" roared the tiger.

Jerome wasn't hearing anymore of the deer's scolding and went back upstairs. The deer turned to her assistants.

"Now I can't tell you what to do my fellow scientists. If you wish to surrender to the police, you are free to do so, but know that what we are doing probably will land you in prison for the rest of your lives, so it's entirely up to you whether you want to try and run."

The assistants simply nodded and continued to work, packing and saving of data.

"Thank you my dear colleagues. Your loyalty is admirable."

The deer finished clearing off her table and found a small envelope that was addressed to her by name 'Dr. Doran', at first she was apprehensive but she opened it anyway, out of the manila envelope, fell two items, a small folded note and a brand new silver flash drive.

She immediately recognized the item and went to read the note.

'Your work has come to our attention and it is grand and beautiful, it would be such a shame to see it wasted. Don't you agree?'

The note was simply signed 'a friend.'

The deer casually looked around to see if anyone was watching, to see if Jerome had come back down without announcing himself. Her curiosity piqued, she picked up the drive and hesitated for a moment. Then as if with conviction she slotted the flash drive into her laptop. Within seconds a program ran on her computer, it was establishing a secure connection to somewhere, at first she thought it was an old familiar network she has been accustomed to. But no, the familiar user interface had been modified, changed, her only clue was a stylized roman numeral in the background.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Judy and company got back to her and Nick's apartment for a change of clothes and to get Kaiden's laptop hooked into a Wi-Fi connection. After doing both, Judy was feeling much better at getting into her police uniform again. Nick had traded in his club wear now almost twenty four hours' worth of time on them since he changed into them in the first place for a uniform himself.

Kaiden had set up a secure connection to Bureau 13 and had already started to enact his idea for finding Jerome and his drug lab.

Nick and Judy were looking over Kaiden's shoulder as he showed them his idea.

"So what we have here is the traffic cams feed."

"Ugh, that will take hours to comb through" commented Judy with a huff.

"Not necessarily, there is something we can use to make the job much easier."

Kaiden's paws clacked on the keyboard as he launched a program that was tying itself into the camera feeds, he had used Jerome's file photo as a reference for the program. Judy narrowed her eyes as she saw the program mapping points on the picture and was scouring the camera feeds.

"What's it doing?" she asked.

"Facial Recognition." replied Kaiden.

"Yeah, I've heard about this." Remarked Nick.

Judy had heard the term before but she wasn't sure exactly what it meant.

"So?" she asked almost begging the question.

"Well, you basically use a reference, like Jerome's photo, and the computer maps points on it, things like distance between the eyes, the eyes to the nose and mouth, even muzzle length, then it looks through video like the camera feeds for anyone that matches it."

"How accurate is this?" she asked almost concerned.

"Scary accurate." Replied Kaiden.

"I'm gonna be honest, carrots, it's this kind of stuff that sometimes I'm more scared of the police than other criminals" said Nick.

"Why?" she looked back tilting her head to the side slightly.

"Well let's just face it, the whole idea that you're constantly being watched and listened to. It just feels…..wrong."

"Nick, we've used the cameras to find bad guys before." She shrugged.

"Yeah, and I didn't say anything, I know, the first time your job was on the line, and the others….Well I just got so caught up in working with you that I guess I didn't really let it sink in."

"Add this into the mix and it just feels wrong, don't ask me to explain it."

Nick sat looking sideways at the screen, watching the feeds dance across the screen. While the conversation seemed to end, Nick and Judy continued to trade glances at each other, Nick looking as though he was almost ashamed, with an almost sullen expression, looking back at Judy she shook her head in genuine misunderstanding mouthing the word 'what?', trying to understand where the fox was coming from.

The tension seemed very palpable and was cut short by Kit clearing his throat.

"So…..Nice play you guys have here." He said trying to change the subject.

Kit went over to the couch, giving the cushions a feel.

"Nice comfy couch, I dig this place." He commented.

"You probably don't want to…" Nick nervously pointed as Kit plopped down on the couch.

"What?" said the blonde wolf quirking his head to the side.

"Nevermind." Nick replied facepawing and shaking his head.

He turned to look back at the computer and saw Kaiden with a sly smile on his face, eyeballing Nick, chuckling to himself slightly. Nick saw this and realized to himself 'So that's what it looks like' referencing his own sly fox smile.

"Well it's definitely yours now, kids." muttered Kaiden with an even bigger smile as he glanced at Nick.

"What?" asked Kit not hearing what the fox said.

"Oh nothing, not important." He replied, dismissing with a wave of his paw before turning back to the laptop.

The sound of a smack was heard as Nick slapped himself in the forehead, Judy pretending to not have heard every word of the exchange.

The laptop beeped finding a match, and highlighted which cameras had made the hits.

"Bingo! Industrial district." Remarked Kaiden.

Judy looked at the feeds.

"Yeah, but the camera coverage isn't complete down there, so he's in the district but that's still A LOT of ground to cover." She commented, shaking her head.

"Ah for mere mortals, sure. But we are mighty, our kung fu is strong." Jested Kaiden.

"Plus access to government satellites helps too." Replied Kit.

"Aww, you had to spoil my surprise."

Kaiden brought up a new screen that had the view of Zootopia but from above.

"Check this out." he directed, pointing to the screen.

Kaiden had typed in the coordinates for the industrial district, which the satellite dutifully obeyed, and gave a closer zoom of the district in question. A few more keystrokes overlaid the image with a darkened view populated by various colored blotches indicating heat.

"Now according to the project files, part of the process involving the refinement of the project nighthowler chemicals involves heating to at least 300 degrees Fahrenheit."

"So I just filter out all sources lower than 300…and….." said Kaiden trying to impress.

A single large heat bloom was located in the industrial district, a high likelihood of the lab being located there.

"Ta-da!" said the fox.

"Wow." Judy remarked, her brow pulling back genuinely impressed.

"Let me make a phone call to the chief."

Judy went to her smartphone and stepped into the other room. Nick on the other paw looked at the screen and pursed his lips for a moment, than dismissing the thought as quickly as it came.

Kit happened to see this reaction and quirked his head.

"What's the matter? We found the bad guys."

"Yeah, I know…" he said trailing off.

"What?" Asked Kaiden

"Look I know this may not be the time or the place for this, but, do you ever wonder maybe, the whole 'incredible power in a few hands' is what caused all this in the first place?"

Kaiden thought on Nick's words for a moment trying to understand what his meaning was.

"You're concerned that the consolidation of power is inherently bad."

"Maybe not bad, but definitely something to watch out for, keep an eye on. I mean, do you ever wonder if all that power will turn you guys into…."

"Illuminati?" Kaiden asked plainly

"Yeah." Replied Nick plainly.

"Kaiden and I have had this conversation before Nick, really, and yeah we get the whole 'absolute power corrupts absolutely thing' but those bad people exist already, we have to use whatever we can just to level the playing field." Interjected the wolf.

"Yeah, but isn't that like 'to kill the monster you must first become the monster'?" asked Nick.

There was a pause for a moment between the three of them as they considered the answer to that question; Kit and Kaiden looked at each other for a moment as if mutually trying to agree on an answer.

"Maybe….a little anyway." Replied Kit as he shrugged.

"I'll be honest, Kaiden and I, we've done...what I would call some questionable things in the name of keeping Zootopia safe."

"And you're right, I do wonder if what we do is, according to Hoyle, 'in the right'."

Nick turned to Kaiden looking for his input. The older fox mulled over the thought, looking off into the distance and then turned back to the younger fox.

"Faith."

"Faith?" Nick rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I have faith in what we are doing, in that Kit's and I make the right call. But keep in mind, when you make that call, you're making it in the moment, you don't have the benefit of hindsight, second guesses, little devil and angels on your shoulders telling you what to do. You look at the facts as you see them and you make a decision as best you can accordingly."

"And what if you're wrong? Who holds you accountable?"

Another pause.

"Exactly." Nick finished pointedly.

Kaiden took a breath "You're right, it's not a perfect system, but I still feel that the best paws for this to be in are our own, and I mean Kit and me specifically."

"Look I trust you, I do, I'm not trying to come down on you guys specifically, or even Bureau 13. You guys risked life and limb to save me." Continued Nick

"It's just when I see stuff like that…" he pointed at Kaiden's laptop

"Where with the press of a button you can find a person or a place, and I'm sure you can push another button and drop a cruise missile into their laps."

"I worry about where we are going that's all."

"That's why we are here Nick, that's why Bureau 13 exists." Replied Kaiden.

"What do you mean?"

"The problem is you haven't seen it, because we have been chasing the Illuminati, but part of Bureau 13's mandate is to protect a system in favor of the people, meaning we're supposed to find that corruption and stamp it out."

"Like Bellwether?" Nick tossed back.

"Ok, admittedly, we dropped the ball on that one." Kaiden admitted.

Nick huffed.

"Hey, why do you think I offered to make you two agents, you've got the best investigative instincts I've ever seen." Kaiden complemented.

"Thanks. I do appreciate it, really. But I'm with Judy on this; I'd prefer to live in her world, not that one."

"I can respect that, it's why I haven't pushed."

"Look I'm sorry, I'm not trying to accuse you guys of anything, it's just all this Illuminati this, and secret agents that, there's just something about it that rubs me the wrong way. I can't imagine living a double life like that."

"I know it makes me kind of a hypocrite, a con man who spends his life living lies turns around and talking about how he disapproves of the concept of the double life, trust me I know what it sounds like."

"It's ok Nick, I know what you mean. And I hope someday, everything we've done comes to light, you're right, even Bureau 13 needs some kind of accountability, some kind of truth to it. But I don't know how you have that without the risk of plugging it into the very corrupt machine that we are supposed to stop." Said Kaiden.

"It's a paradox." Commented Kit.

"Yeah, I guess." Finished Nick.

"God this is depressing, can we talk about something a bit more fun?" offered Kit.

"Sure." Said Kaiden.

Nick spun around to look at Kit and offered a smirk, cradling his arm on the back of the chair.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure?"

"Do you have a cold or something?"

"No."

"So not a good sense of smell?"

"You kidding I'm a wolf, I've got a damn good nose."

"Then tell me this, how is it you've sat there in that sofa and not smelled the scent?"

"Scent?" Kit replied back almost worried.

"Yeah."

Kit quizzically leaned over and sniffed the air coming off the sofa, his eyes went wide as he realized of what activity that smell was sourced from.

"Aw god!" he shouted getting up off the Sofa.

Nick chuckled while Kaiden busted out laughing.

"What the hell! When were you going to say something?" replied Kit trying swipe off the smell from his clothes.

"Actually I wasn't." replied Kaiden

"Ugh, Fox funk and rabbit stew." Kit remarked.

"Sounds like a grunge band." quipped the older fox.

"And you?" Kit pointed a paw at Nick.

"I was going to warn you but you just sat down. Sorry." The younger fox apologized.

"You could have sprayed something at least." Replied Kit making a spray can motion with his paw.

"We hadn't had time, we've been working a case. Besides, 'consenting adults'." Defended Nick.

"Well I didn't consent to that. Sheesh." Stood Kit still trying to air out his clothes.

Judy had walked back in, having missed the entire conversation, and pointed at Nick.

"Chief says he's mobilizing SWAT, and preparing a raid on the lab."

Judy turned to Kaiden and Kit.

"…And I kinda had to explain HOW we found out about it." She said hesitantly.

Kaiden winced.

"I really, wish you hadn't done that."

"He asked. He wanted to know how I was so sure, I had to give him something." She replied.

"It's not like he doesn't know who we are K." remarked Kit.

"Yeah, I guess."

"And by the way, since this is a ZPD case, and if I remember right, Bureau 13 doesn't handle 'normal' crime, technically your legal authority on this, is kind of…nonexistent."

"Ok?" replied the two, not sure where she was going.

"So I also told the chief that I'm deputizing you….temporarily of course, so you can help us."

Kaiden and Kit looked at each other expressionless at first but then two smirks grew on their respective faces.

"I'm Tango, your Cash." Said Kaiden

"Oh bullshit, if anybody is Tango, that me, you're Cash." Replied the wolf.

"Boys. You can be anyone you want to be, can we just go." She said motioning to the door.

"Yes, Ma'am." replied both agents, saluting Judy playfully.

* * *

Minutes later….

As they went down to the bureau 13 van, Kit and Kaiden opened up the back doors, and the small locker they had under the floorboard. There was various weapons and armor available.

"Take anything you need." Said Kit reaching for his signature rifle.

"Ah, Ah, Ah" Judy shook her paw, a raised finger in the air.

"What?" the wolf replied.

"Unless you got non-lethal darts, no."

"You kidding me?" he replied.

"ZPD not B13, we're trying to arrest them, not kill them."

Kit groaned disapprovingly.

"But, but, I wanted to use 'Vera'." He replied almost whining

"Who?" Judy tilted her head.

"It's his rifle." Kaiden explained.

"She's my favorite." Kit explained showing 'her' to Judy.

"Wow, I don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that you named your gun or that you refer it as a 'she'"

"She's very special." Kit remarked playfully.

"Well 'Vera'….Is going to have to miss this party." Replied Judy as she took the rifle from Kit and put it back in its housing in the van.

Kit huffed and crossed his arms.

"We can take armor right?" asked Kaiden as he was putting on body armor.

"Yes, and Bogo has dart rifles for you when we get there." Said Judy as she got into the passenger seat of the van.

Kaiden nodded and looked at Kit "That's why I'm Tango." Giving the wolf an armor vest.

"Oh and Kaiden, no arm blade thingies." She ordered from inside the van.

"Aw come on!" he shouted.

Kit laughed at Kaiden's expense.

"Now you know how it feels." The wolf quipped back.

* * *

The four loaded into the van and made their way to the rendezvous point with the other heavily armed and armored ZPD officers. When they arrived, they met up with Gideon Frost and the Chief, the four collected their weapons and armor then sat in on the quick field briefing along with the rest of the SWAT unit as to the exact strategy for their breach.

The strategy was relatively straightforward, the warehouse level and the sub-basement, the top level would need to be secured first before continuing the raid to the lab proper, and of course be at the ready to arrest any survivors or those who were giving themselves up.

"Alright, listen up mammals" started the chief.

"The scouts report that the top level has various racks and shelving, stacked with pallets and boxes, things typical of a warehouse, but keep in mind this is concealment NOT cover, don't expect the boxes to stop bullets."

"Unfortunately all this concealment means we can't get an accurate count as to the number of people in there, so keep on your paws and hooves."

"There is an office at the back of the warehouse, that we will need to secure. However, we were unable to determine where the access to the lower level is from out here. We are hoping that once we get in there we will find it, so keep on the lookout for any access hatches or concealed doors."

"As always, look out for each other, take your time and move as a unit. Understood?!" the buffalo finished.

"Sir, Yes sir." Replied every member of SWAT in unison.

"Good Hunting." Said the Chief.

The chief came over to the four latecomers to the raid.

"Officer Hopps, I'm assuming that by being here, you feel fully capable?"

"If you're concerned about my visit to the hospital, sir, I am fine, I assure you."

"So long as you aren't over exerting yourself."

"I'll be fine sir."

"And you two…" pointed the Chief at Kaiden and Kit

"Can you two work on a team with us? I mean we are just lowly and normal city cops." the chief asked sarcastically.

"Yes sir, Chief Bogo" replied Kaiden seriously.

"For what it's worth sir, you run a good group of mammals."

"Damn straight I do, which is why I'm expecting you to watch out for them. Superpowers notwithstanding." Fired back the cape buffalo

"Yes sir." Nodded Kaiden.

"Alright…let's go." Said the Chief picking up a dart rifle for himself.

* * *

Chapter 10: Rush Job

It's those moments before the storm that are often the calmest but the most anxious. The buildup to the moment, the expectation, the hesitation, the consideration of things to come, when you're in the moment nothing seems wrong nor do you have the time to consider anything. You often act on instinct and emotion. The fear that comes before, the regret comes later. But in the moment, you're free, adrenaline running on high, time seems to be fluid, it slows down or speeds up depending on the state of mind.

The moment seemed to be forever in the mind of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, they glanced at each other, intensely aware of the rapid pulse of the other, the sound of their breathing and the other officers awaiting the go ahead order from Chief Bogo. The occasional clatter of their SWAT gear as an officer would shift their weight.

If it wasn't for the fact of the dangerousness of what it was they were about to do, it would almost be funny. Nick just looked at Judy with his soft eyes, she looked strangely beautiful in her gear, the chin strap slightly askew, her ears tucked under the safety of the ballistic protection and form fitting armor gave her a smooth look. Mainly though it was because he wouldn't think of going through such dangers with anyone else. The smoldering intent of her eyes as he could see her working things out in her head. He didn't say anything for fear of breaking her concentration and because the situation was not appropriate. But he did admire her, the sheen of her visor in front of her muzzle, the occasional puff of fog forming on the visor with every exhale and rapidly fading with the inhale.

She turned her head slightly and locked gaze with Nick, maybe she felt his eyes, or maybe she wanted her own sense of reassurance, the fox couldn't tell which. All he could do was smile at her softly, one that she returned just as gently. To him the vision of her grace under pressure warmed his heart.

"Scouts report optimal position in thirty seconds." Whispered the Chief over comms.

The slight crackle from the comms, made her gaze quickly dart to the door and then back to Nick.

"Fifteen seconds."

Judy took a deep breath and mouthed each word slowly enough so Nick could read her lips.

"I….love….you"

"I….love…you, too" he replied mouthing the words and pointing to his eye, his heart, then to her and finishing with two raised fingers.

"Five seconds." Crackled the comm.

Judy and Nick looked forward, sighting along their rifles, the sudden surge of adrenaline kicking in.

"Three…..Two…..One…breach, breach, breach." Called the chief.

The loud band of the battering ram, made the door swing open with enough force, it made the inside door handle lodge in the wall on its back swing, holding it open, similar bangs rang out as the other teams breached at the same time.

"ZPD, throw down your weapons and surrender!" shouted Officer Wolford

Similar calls were made by each team as they entered the building identifying themselves, though such requests always proved to be on deaf ears, it was necessary anyway.

Gunfire rang out from the loud weapons of the guards caught unawares, and the cartridges that powered the ZPD dart rifles. Several of the guards were immediately tagged, stumbled and fell to the floor unconscious.

A firefight ensued, guards dropping whatever boxes and other materials they were carrying and firing weapons at the ZPD. The three teams moving from different directions and along their respective routes, Judy and Nick could hear the rampant clicks of the comm traffic in their ears.

"Fangmeyer been hit" called out Kaiden on the comms.

"Grizzoli, Back up Bravo team." Ordered Bogo.

"I'm ok, just knocked the wind outta me…" grunted Fangmeyer.

"This is Charlie, we got a lot of heavies back here." called out McHorn, the scratch of the comms from the arms fire.

"13, you have any non-lethals in that bag of tricks?" requested Bogo

"Yeah, I got a couple, tell your guys to stand back." Called out Kaiden.

"Bravo, Charlie, give the fox a wide berth."

"Going hot." Called out Kaiden.

Judy saw an intense flash and what sounded like electrical discharge from over the tops of the boxes on the racks, and several mammals screaming at once looking dumbstruck as if they got struck by lightning.

"Holy shit….that's a neat trick." Commented Grizzoli.

Judy, Nick along with Wolford and Anderson, move forward along their path, three guards who were facing away from them, as they approached one of the guards swung around just in time to be darted by Judy. The sound of the impact caused the other two to move, one diving forward and away the other to spin around, swinging his firearm backwards. Anderson took the gun butt to the chest, and shoulder charged the guard knocking him down, Wolford finishing him off with a dart.

The other guard having dove forward behind some boxes, trailed by two darts from Nick's rifle which lodged in the ground, popped up like a gopher, only for Nick to score a tag on his third shot.

"McHorn, watch out for that heavy!" chirped Delgato.

The sound of Mchorn grunting over the comm and the sound of something crashing into a nearby rack causing it to spill over leaning at a near forty five degree angle on the next rack, the contents of the rack filling the triangular space below.

"Damn it, access is blocked." Chided Kit.

"Bravo Team is cut off, we're looking for alternate route" appraised Fangmeyer.

"No, time, just stand back." Replied Kaiden.

A moment past before the comms clicked again

"What the hell is up with your paw!" exclaimed the wolf, the distant sound of servos in the background.

A loud intense flash, brighter than before and a loud boom, the sound of bending metal rang out, in an instant it overshadowed any other sound in the warehouse then the sound of combat returned.

"Chief, who the hell are these guys?" growled Grizzoli

"Never mind, secure the main floor, McHorn, Delgato, secure the main office." Ordered the Chief.

"Roger chief." Replied the Rhino.

Judy's team managed to make their way up to where Bravo team was, Judy caught sight of what Kaiden had done, using the repulsor cannon from his right arm, he was able to bend the fallen rack into itself allowing a hole for them to pass to the next row.

The firefight continued for several more minutes, towards the end several of the guards gave up willingly, dropping their weapons, getting down on their knees, hands on their head. Just as quickly as it started, it was over, for now. Bogo ordered the men to clear out the unconscious, move them away from the building and towards the waiting trucks to transport them to jail or the hospital depending on their condition.

Bogo knew that there must be some kind access down to the lab but he couldn't find it.

"Hopps, Wilde!" he bellowed.

The two scrambled up to the office, it was a disheveled mess, anything that was important was missing, no computers, or laptops, file cabinets were empty and tossed. Kaiden and Kit arrived into the office.

"Well this place looks thoroughly trashed." Commented Kaiden.

"Well Hopps, Wilde, any thoughts?" asked Chief Bogo.

"Just give me a minute." She replied

Judy looked around the office, panning her eyes and ears, the state of the office was at the forefront of her mind, but nothing seemed to stand out.

The chief rummaging through the desk, knocking a few loose items around, but then the sound of small intermittent clicks, sounding like small pops filled the office.

"What the hell?" commented the chief.

The room spun around to see what the chief was looking at. The chief slightly concerned, took a step back

"I think we might need to call the bomb squad." He said calmly.

"Wait." Replied Hopps.

She went to look at the device, it was a small rectangular gadget, with an LCD screen and a small bar moving back and forth, it was wired and mounted inside the drawer, attached to some kind of wiring.

"It's not a bomb…..it's a metronome." She said confidently.

"What do we do?" asked the Chief.

"I think I can….." she said trailing off.

She tried adjusting it pressing the up arrow making it go faster, then down to make it go slower.

"This is all fascinating….." Said Kaiden

"Shhh!" hissed Judy.

Judy was not musically inclined, she couldn't tell the names of timings and beat rates if she was asked, but what she did have was a good memory and a damn good set of ears. She closed her eyes as if concentrating on a memory, and listened intently, she rolled up the volume on the metronome till the clacking of its beats filled the office to almost deafening levels.

She breathed calmly, manipulating the buttons with her paw, the beat slowing down more and more, and the expectant thumps of each clack. She had only heard the timing in the office in the nightclub for a few moments, but the hope was that was enough, if she could remember.

Letting her memory guide her paw, tapping the buttons down and up, she stopped and waited eyes still closed, the clacks ringing out, seven times to be exact, the metronome shut off and a deep resonating sound of the rack nearby the office started moving.

She smiled, and then opened her eyes, pleased with herself, looking at Nick.

"Smart Bunny." He complemented.

"Good work, Hopps." Complemented the Chief.

"Move Out, Mammals!" ordered the chief.

He clicked his comms and ordered the SWAT team to continue down the revealed stairway.

* * *

Meanwhile…

The routed chaos in the lab was reaching fever pitch as the sound of gunfire above had given cause for alarm, to many of the workers the sight of armor clad ZPD was enough for them to surrender right then and there, but in doing so slowed them down. To which Jerome and Dr. Doran wasted no time in taking advantage of.

"Come on Doctor, we can go out the sewer access, but only if we hurry." Demanded Jerome in an almost panicked state.

"Calm down." Said the water deer.

"I don't think either of us would fit well in prison orange, do you?" jibed the tiger.

The tiger grabbed the deer by the arm, pulled her towards the back of the lab. As they snaked through the series of aluminum tubes and large titration tanks, they could hear the ZPD flooding into the lab from the stairs like the proverbial 'flood waters'. Dr Doran snapped Jerome out of his fight or flight response, and turned his head with her hoof to look into the tiger's eyes.

"Listen to me Jerome, I can get us out, but you must be calm about it. I can get us out of here." She said trying to comfort the agitated tiger.

"How?"

"Just follow me." As she motioned to a nearby hatch

The access hatch was a flood door, so flood waters would not to backtrack from the sewer into the basement in which the lab occupied. During heavy rains these sewers would be filled with water, but during dryer weather, the sewers made an excellent set of escape tunnels. A network of interlocking grid work that would make searching them a nightmare, giving ample time for those who were aware of the topography a chance to get to the outlet at the other end.

"We don't know where these sewers lead" warned the tiger.

"Yes we do." Replied the water deer, pulling out her cell phone.

Dr. Doran pulled up a map that she had saved to her phone and opened the hatch.

"Listen, we can use this to get out, get to the backup site and start over. We'll be fine."

The tiger reluctantly agreed as the two escaped out the hatchway.

* * *

Meanwhile…

The SWAT team was encountering some resistance from the guards, but many of the workers were surrendering to the ZPD without issue. As the teams took up holding positions in the lab, Bogo had Frost's support team evacuating the workers. Judy and company were continuing to look for Jerome and Dr. Doran.

Kaiden went down the row of yellow jumpsuited workers checking to make sure that the pair weren't trying to slip out with the workers.

"Damn it, there not here." Exclaimed the fox.

"They have to be in here somewhere." Replied Kit

"Chief, let me take a team and find our culprits."

"Fine, but be careful." warned the buffalo.

Judy, Nick, Kaiden and Kit split off from the SWAT team, and swept through the lab. It was huge; nothing like what the young rabbit expected, not test tubes and lab beakers but large aluminum tanks, valves, switches, piping everywhere. It resembled something akin to the Bunnyburrow Brewery then a laboratory. She could only assume the vast amounts of Rush that must have been in these tubes, or precursors just as toxic.

They carefully moved through the area, Judy especially so as not to have a repeat occurrence of last night. Eventually they found a large door in the back of the lab.

"What's that?" asked Kaiden?

"Flood door. Keeps the water out of basements levels like this." Answered Nick.

"Where does it go?" asked Kit.

"Tunnels maybe?" surmised Judy.

"Sewers likely." The younger fox replied.

The four of them entered in slowly, preparing for any kind of ambush, all they found was a dark and dank sewer access.

"Do NOT tell me they got away…" growled Kaiden.

Judy listened with her ears, and heard the faint footsteps in the distance.

"Follow me!" she ordered and took off running down one of the tunnels.

The others followed the bunny, she seemed to be knowing where she was going. Her ears would twist and turn tuning into the sounds that she was hearing.

"Kaiden, can you see anything down here?" she asked.

"Let me check."

Kaiden had switched vision modes checking for any kind of signature, his trademark eye shine illuminating in the dim light.

"Nothing, damn thermal signatures keep bouncing all over the place, it's these pipes." He said.

"Can you track different chemicals, things like that?"

"Depends, what am I looking for?"

"The natural rubber in her shoes."

"What!?" he exclaimed

"She's a scientist right, working in a lab, I remember reading somewhere they have natural rubber in their shoes when working in a lab."

Kaiden raised an eyebrow and looked at Kit, to which the wolf shrugged and flipped through his own vision modes, looking for chemical traces.

"Holy crap, she's right, check it." He said pointing, his blue eye shine illuminating brightly.

Kaiden switched himself and in his vision were the traces of natural rubber patterns, forming hoof prints. A path of foot prints leading away from them.

"Smart Bunny. I would have never thought of that." Kaiden muttered.

"That's why I love her. Pure…genius." Remarked Nick.

"OK, let's go, this way." Said Kaiden pointing down the tunnel.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"Where are we going?" asked Jerome.

The deer had been leading the tiger along the route that was in her phone, finally reaching the end, there was the light from the Zootopian City lights at the end of the tunnel. As they reached the end there was a boat waiting just inside the mouth of the outlet pipe.

"Here, this is it, our way out of here." Said Dr. Doran.

As they approached the boat a figure walked out of the nearby shadows, silhouetted against the nearby light.

"Doctor Doran." Stated the figure.

"Woah, who is this?" reacted Jerome

"Don't worry Jerome, this is my contact." She reassured.

"You were told to come alone."

"It's fine, this is my partner, he handles the business, I can explain later, let's go."

"No." replied the figure.

"What do you mean No." she asked taken petulantly.

"As in No. That was not the arrangement."

The figure stepped out of the shadows and into the illuminating city light peering in from outside the tunnel. Jerome was shocked, wide eyed, tugging at the water deer's coat.

"Oh god Anabel, it's a trap!"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's the fox that shot up my club, him and that stupid rabbit. He's a cop or something."

There was a moment of silence, The fox glared at the tiger.

"You have me mistaken for someone else. Now doctor, onto the boat."

"Bullshit I will, and be taken to jail" said Jerome.

"I said Doctor, I never said anything about you."

"We can't leave him, he is very important to me…..Our operation, our business."

A loud bang rang out and there was a silence, Jerome grabbed his stomach, the blood on his paws, an expression of shock across his face, a bolt of pain. He fell to the ground, gasping. Doran almost screamed, she knelt down to tend to Jerome.

"What are you doing!?" she exclaimed.

"Jerome!" she called out.

The fox very heavy pawed, grabbed the doctor, yanking her to a standing position, placing the gun under her chin.

"I don't have time for this Doctor. No time at all, now get in the boat." He ordered

"But I can't just leave him like this." She pleaded

The fox shot Jerome again, his body snapped back, lying on the ground, not moving.

"Now Doctor!" demanded the fox.

The deer did as she was told and stepped into the boat, she looked back at Jerome's body, and she shed tears, as the Fox started the boat and sped off out of the sewers.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Judy and co. followed the trail towards the end of the tunnel, they found Jerome, his paw cradling his stomach, but he didn't seem to be moving.

Judy crouched down to check him; the group jumped when he gasped for breath and gurgled on his own blood.

"Don't move, we are getting help, Jerome."

Nick chirped his comm

"This is Officer Wilde, we need an paramedics at the sewer exit just past the warehouse. Like right now."

"I need help here!" Judy shouted back as she was trying to keep the pressure on Jerome's neck wound.

Kaiden and Kit, used the battlefield kit they had to try and keep Jerome from bleeding out. Judy literally kept a finger against Jerome's artery, she could feel his frantic pulse against her finger.

"Please don't let me die." He managed to mutter a plea as he stared into her eyes.

Jerome coughed and choked on blood, spitting it out trying to keep from drowning, he was shaking either from the shock or the fear, Judy was unsure which, maybe a bit of both. Kaiden and Kit worked frantically to stanch the bleeding of his stomach wound.

"Who did this to you?" asked Kaiden.

"I don't think he's any condition to answer questions." Replied Judy

Jerome managed to muster enough strength despite his intense shaking to raise his paw, his eyes glazing over, he pointed at Nick.

"A fox did this?" she ask trying to decipher Jerome's pointing.

Jerome grunted a few times, and just kept pointing at Nick, trying to muster words, but he couldn't, he passed out from the blood loss.

* * *

Later….

Jerome was retrieved by the paramedics a few minutes later and rushed to Zootopia General. Judy, Nick, Kaiden and Kit returned back to the surface to meet up with the Chief. Gideon Frost was coordinating the lockdown of the Rush Lab, and getting the injured to the Hospital and the arrested to the jail. They stood before the chief to report in

"Good work you two, you managed to find the source of the horrible drug and stamp it out." congratulated the Chief.

Nick and Judy sat silently and simply put on their best smile.

"And I expect this drug to disappear entirely once the supply runs out."

"As a result, you two can consider yourselves past your probationary period."

"Thank you chief" smiled Judy

"You two earned it. Take the rest of the night off, we'll handle the clean up."

"And Hopps, go see the paramedics before you go." Said the chief pointing to the dried blood on her paws.

Nick and Judy saluted the chief, and he returned it. They walked off, and stood some ways away from the commotion, Judy with a sullen look on her face.

"Nick?"

"Yeah, carrots."

"I don't…..I don't know what to think."

"About what?"

"This. All of this." She motioned her paw towards the warehouse.

"What's to think about, we busted a drug ring, and made things better."

"But that's just it, it doesn't feel like it. It doesn't feel like a win."

"And why do you say that?"

"Because we didn't get Jerome's associate. The water deer. I just feel like the job's half finished. And I feel like we missed something."

"Carrots, you can't clean up the world in one swoop. You have to take your victories where you can."

"I guess."

Kaiden and Kit trotted up to the duo.

"Hey guys, you ok?" asked Kit

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Said Nick

Judy rushed over and gave Kit and Kaiden a hug

"Thanks for coming to my rescue guys." She said

"Anytime Judy." Said Kaiden.

"Yeah, we're always around." Joked Kit.

"You want us to give you a ride home?"

"Yeah, I'm exhausted." Replied Judy.

The four of them piled into the van and drove back to their apartment, picking up some Buggaburger along the way. The tiredness caused by their ordeal and the general uneasiness with the manner in which it concluded gave them all a bad taste in the mouth.

When they got to the apartment, Judy had gone to wash her paws, using antibacterial soap to scrub off the dried blood, she winced, thinking about Jerome, praying that he would survive. 'Funny thing' she thought, only last night they were shooting at each other seemingly mortal enemies and now here she was praying to the survival of a frightened tiger. How quickly the tables turn, fortunes change and we find ourselves wishing for the wellbeing of those tried to do us harm.

Strange and stranger things keep happening in her life, but at least she has Nick and her dearest friends. She could hear them laughing out in the den as they ate their food.

Judy walked back out to see them talking, she just stared at them for a moment before Nick turned to her.

"Something wrong carrots?"

"No, just enjoying the sound of your voices." She smiled.

"Aww, we love you too." Winked Kit jokingly.

Judy rolled her eyes and shook her head.

After a another half hour of talking and voicing of opinions, concerns and eating of burgers, Kaiden and Kit decided to take their leave.

"Look guys, don't worry, we'll find her. She has no resources, so she will turn up somewhere." Consoled Kaiden.

"I guess, I just wish this would feel like a win already, I guess it just hasn't sunk in yet."

"Just one day at a time Judy." Said Kit.

As the two agents walked out the door, Judy noticed that there was box they brought in they hadn't taken with them.

"Aren't you guys forgetting something?"

"No, that's yours; it was something we were going to drop off when we had the chance."

"What is it?"

"It's some stuff you left at Bureau 13, your uniforms etcetera. Just consider them mementos"

"Thanks guys."

"No problem."

After saying their goodbyes, Kaiden and Kit left, leaving Nick and Judy alone. They took this opportunity to clean up, take showers and relax. Nick was sitting on the couch pulling up something to watch on TV

Judy had taken a quick peak into the box and saw the uniforms, as well as a familiar chain necklace and silver flash drive

"Wow, remember this?" she said holding it up.

"How could I forget carrots."

"I got an idea."

Judy went over to the dirty clothes and searched for something, Nick rose an eyebrow as she looked wondering just what she was thinking.

"A-ha" she exclaimed as she found what she was looking for.

Judy stood up holding the empty blue inhaler that Nick had in his pocket.

"What are you thinking carrots?"

Judy walked over to a nearby shelf that was empty and placed the flash drive on the left side of the shelf with the blue inhaler to the right next to it. Nick was even more puzzled. She looked back and smiled.

"Isn't there some comic superhero where the good guy keeps mementos of all his big time busts?"

"Oh carrots, yeah I get it, it's a rogue's gallery" Nick chuckled.

"Well?"

"So you're a superhero now?"

Judy trotted over to the couch, with a little grin on her face.

"Yup" she said plainly

"Oh really now." He replied playfully.

"Mmmhmm, and your my sidekick." She replied back in the same playful tone.

"Why do I have to be the sidekick?"

"Cuz I called it first."

"Hey no fair."

Judy jumped on the couch next to Nick and tried to cuddle up to him, to which he scooted away. Judy looked at him almost concerned.

"What?"

"Sidekicks don't cuddle." He said in a false huff.

Judy rolled her eyes and nudged him

"Oh, ok, partners." She grinned.

"Yeah, like it should be." He smiled back.

"Do partners cuddle?"

"Partners get to do whatever they want."

"Oh good" Judy squeaked.

Judy pounced on Nick, jumping into his arms and giving him a big playful kiss on the lips and a firm hug, to which Nick reciprocated. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and then she gave him a deeper, loving kiss, more passionate.

"Thank you for saving me." she said.

"Of course carrots, always."

"I just want you to know, I'm absolutely grateful that you're always there for me. That you're willing to do anything for me, I….I don't know what I did to deserve having that."

"Carrots….Judy, you're special to me, and truthfully, I don't know where I would be if you didn't fall into my….life."

"You wanted to say lap didn't you"

"Yes, yes I did."

"I just keep thinking, my life gets better every day you're in it."

"Even with the constant risk of peril and serious injury?"

"It wouldn't be fun without it."

Judy and Nick nuzzled each other, pressing cheek to cheek, listening to each other's breath, Nick running the small pads of his paw along the back of Judy's ears, making her giggle and spine tingle.

"How do you always know how to do that, Wilde?"

"Magic paws." He joked.

"That and the fact that I like to think I know each and every little inch of you." He replied, nibbling her neck.

Judy let out soft exhale as she felt the tips of his teeth dancing along the skin of her neck, making her tingle again. She looked into his Emerald eyes with a relaxed smile and gave him a little peck on the nose.

"I'm glad you came into my life too…..Who would have thought a bunny and a fox?"

Nick didn't reply with words, just kissing her deeply.

They cuddled on the couch and watched one of Judy's saved mystery movies on TV, both falling asleep on the couch midway through, Nick fell into a dream, a vision danced in his head, recollections of words he did not remember, of a place he didn't recognize…

* * *

 _"We could have had a great life together." He said._

 _"I know, I'm sorry." She replied tearing up_

 _"Hey…..I would rather have a day with you then live the next 50 years without you." He replied back running his paw through the fur on her head._

 _"I want to take those kids over to your parent's place, and they can spoil the heck out of them."_

 _"Have them play with your brothers and sisters, they would be aunts and uncles, ya' know." Said Nick trying to keep the levity, his eyes tearing up._

 _"They would love that." She whispered, thinking of home, her tears starting to run._

 _"And they could play in the carrot fields…and uh….." whispered Nick trying to find words._

 _"We would have a big family dinner around that picnic table in my parent's yard." She finished._

 _"And we could tell stories and sing songs, and tuck the little ones into bed." She continued_

 _Nick smiled at the thought, visualizing that life. Judy rested her head on his shoulder._

 _"And we could stay in the guest house, and watch the stars, and…" she said her voice breaking._

 _"make love." She barely whispered, trying to keep her voice from cracking_

 _"It would be a great life." She whispered._

* * *

Later…

Nick awoke from his dream with a start, the words fading in this head; Judy was still asleep in front of him, her muzzle, pressed into the sofa cushion. Nick carefully slid out from behind her and sat up on the couch, the imagery of the dream fast retreating back to the ether within seconds it became a feeling more than cogent memory.

"A dream?" he muttered.

Nick turned and looked at the box, something calling him, beckoning him. At first he dismissed it, as simple drowsy thoughts. But then he decided to go with his urge. Getting up and walking over to the box, he picked it up and placed on the table, opening the lid and going through its contents.

He found the radios, and the bureau 13 tac vests for him and Judy, looking over them, nothing seemed to pop out at him. Taking a look at the uniforms themselves he looked them over, looking at the front and back, still nothing.

He took a breath and dismissed the idea that something was beckoning him. He stacked the uniforms together and doubled them over his arm, something slid out of a pocket, a hard clatter on the floor. He looked at the sound, something small and metal on the floor, spinning and then settling to a stop.

Nick put the uniforms back in the box and bent over, picking up the object, holding it in the fingers of his paw. It looked like a washer, a titanium metal washer from something.

'Why would we keep something like this?' he thought, spinning it around in his fingers.

Nick confused couldn't understand why a metal washer would seem to beckon him, not understanding the significance of it. Part of him questioned whether to throw it away or not, but another part of him felt that he couldn't bear to part with it.

The answers not forth coming he decided to put it off till later. With washer in paw, shutting off the lights and TV, he went over to the couch and picked a sleeping rabbit off the couch and carried her off to bed. After tucking her in, he went to his side of the bed, sitting on the edge.

Taking a look at the washer again, looking at it, 'This is important' he thought. He opened the drawer next to the bed and placed it in there, to arrive at a solution another day. Closing the drawer and climbing into bed with his one and only rabbit.

* * *

Several Hours Later…At an elegant residence

The weasel stood staring out the window of his office, the dark oak wood décor and the businesslike atmosphere of the office being more in tune with the current occupant of the residence then the aristocrats of past.

There was a knock on the door, and the slight squeak it opened. A fox and water deer walk through.

"Ah Doctor Doran, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Said the weasel turning to face his guests.

"Sidney Ridgeway. So….You DID survive." She said

"Quite right." He replied

"And who is this that you sent for me?"

"Him, oh he is Piberius, my right hand." He introduced, levying a paw at the fox.

"Well your 'right hand' murdered someone very close to me."

"In his defense, the agreement was for one person Doctor, One, You." He replied displaying a single finger.

"Damn you."

"If it will put your mind at ease, you should know that your friend is NOT dead."

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"He is currently at Zootopia General right now, albeit in a coma."

"He's alive?!"

"Yes, and he will remain that way, once I determine your 'loyalties'."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know that you were one of the researchers on the Night Howler Project, and that you 'were' a loyal illuminatus, in fact from what I hear you were well on your way to claim Mei Ling's chair on the council. So what changed?" asked the weasel.

"What changed?! How about from the fact there ISN'T a council anymore, the fact that the illuminati are destroyed, and the whole of the organization is essentially a corpse." She fired back.

"All points are true, but I'm talking about your personal ambitions before this occurred."

"May I venture to guess that maybe your priorities changed due to a certain tiger?"

"How dare you." she replied feeling insulted.

"That's the rumor." Sidney shrugged.

"You want to talk about rumors, how about a few I know of you. Like the rumor that you had Samir arrested on purpose to get a network key into the hands of Bureau 13. Or the rumor that you were the one that leaked important information to allow them to conduct raids on secret Illuminati bases. Or how about the rumor that ALL of that, was to get them to do your dirty work and get rid of the council for you, so you could take over."

Sidney leaned forward mirthfully and arched his hands.

"And are you one to generally believe in rumors?" He chided her.

"In regards to those about you…..Yes, absolutely." She replied confidently.

"Ok….and what if I told you they were true. What if everything that happened, all of the secret raids and rescue plans of beloved foxes and the takedown of great villains was all part of my plan? Would you feel compelled to exact some sort of revenge for the sake of the council?"

"Hell no. I had no love of the council, but I wasn't exactly plotting their doom from behind their backs."

"So what was this whole drug operation about?"

"I wasn't trying to rebuild the illuminati if that's what's you're worried about."

"No, I'm genuinely curious, what was this about?"

"I just wanted to build something for me and Jerome and to continue my work."

"And _do_ you want to continue your work?"

"I do…..but not at the cost of Jerome. If you kill him, you might as well kill me." She concluded.

"He means that much to you?" Sidney asked, amazed at the deer's responses.

"He helped me, when no one else would. He understood me." She admitted.

"I hear he's rather flippant and flamboyant though." He countered.

"That's just a character he plays for the public. In private he can be…" She replied.

"Tender?" he interrupted.

"It's none of your damn business."

Sidney took a breath and rubbed his paws together.

"I must genuinely offer my apologies."

"Why?" she huffed.

"I completely misread you, from your files I understood you to be callous, even ruthless in your work, I never suspected that you would possess a sense of….compassion, even affection."

"Let's just say having your life turned upside down gives you perspective."

"Hmmm, Alright what if I was to offer you a chance to be able to continue your work AND give your tiger friend not just protection but even opportunity here."

"Considering you're the one who put two bullets in him, and until just now I thought he was dead. Why the hell would I believe what you have to say." She retorted.

"You'll have to forgive Piberius, he has 'anger' issues toward a particular mammal."

"But as I said, if I offer you the best medicine and technology to save his life, would you at least consider my offer."

"So is that it, you put him in a coma to bargain?" She replied

"No, honestly, I gave Piberius absolute freedom for your extraction, I was unaware of your 'attachment' to this Jerome, and I shall not mistake again."

"This is not like the illuminati of generations past, where we are constantly trying to outdo one another, to blackmail and manipulate. My group focuses on the more beneficial aspects of cooperation to control society. My group offers equal ownership and treats whole endeavor as more of a corporate interest." Explained Sid

"I assure you, I will do everything in my power to save your friend regardless."

"So you're saying you'll save him, even if I tell you no?" she asked in disbelief.

"Correct. Because this unfortunate event is muddling the issue, I want to talk about your work."

"What's to talk about, Rush doesn't make a combat drug, even Nighthowler 2.0 serum needs further refinement." She explained.

"And I wish to give you chance to further refine your work, but I was more interested in you work in Project Rosslyn"

"How do you know about that, Even Mei Ling didn't know I worked on that." Doran reacted shocked.

"I make it a point to know things, especially things people don't _want_ me to know." Replied Sidney

"But I want to know about the work you performed with Amon Dekker."

Doctor Doran, huffed in surprise and shook her head.

"That's what this is about, Dekker's work?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes." Sidney confirmed.

"That was just a hypothesis."

"A very bold hypothesis."

"So many people, the council, even Bureau 13 were so concerned about _WHO_ was shaping Zootopia and its people into _their_ vision of the future, they completely missed the fact that, there already is a vision, one that is right in our DNA."

"There is absolutely no way to know IF it would work or if it was even real. It would take resources of…"

"The largest bio technical firm in the world? With access to finances that rivals most countries." Sidney interrupted.

"I just want to know one thing, why? I mean personally, Why?"

"Because my dear Doctor, the Nighthowler flower offered us a glimpse into our past, what we used to be. I'm asking you, to unlock the future and what we CAN be."

"So what say you?"

The doctor considered those words, there was no way to understand the implications of what Sidney was asking, but to potentially explore the future was opportunity too good to pass up.

"Alright…..I'm in."


End file.
